Different Place
by logica
Summary: Someone goes to a familiar place
1. Default Chapter

DISCLAIMER: I do not own any of the characters from 'Mutant X'. They're not my property.

Another iron bar fell from the floor beneath her. Griping the rusty steel fence tightly with her fingers, Emma could feel the rising heat from the roaring flame on the ground. It had contributed to the drops of sweat falling down from her skin. Turning her head to the left, she saw the gap where only a few minutes ago was an extension to the steel bridge. The gap was too wide for the Psionic to attempt a jump over it. Swallowing, Emma then turned the eyes to the right. Only two thin steel bars had remained there but the distance between them was too wide and the bars were too thin to be tried and walked on. And then of course was the heat coming from the fire which appeared as an extra and an undesirable obstacle. "Why did I chase him through this bridge?!" Emma thought as she let her eyes travel around the space available to her of the abandoned factory with hopes she could find a safer way out. 

"Help!!!" she then screamed at the top of her lunges. Someone had to be passing by this decaying piece of architectural garbage. "Somebody, help me!!" she tried once more. Her breathing became more rapid as the only sound that she could hear was that of the flames beneath her and some pieces of metal that would fall from the sides. "Who am I kidding, no one can hear me!" Emma told herself and glanced at the ceiling were four broken windows, were releasing the continuing black smoke from the flames; if it hadn't been for them and perhaps some other open passages, the Psionic would have suffocated. But the smoke still had an effect on her lunges as it entered inside and hard coughs came out of her while trying to replace it with some oxygen.          

When she could continue breathing, Emma glanced at her ring. She knew she shouldn't have come here alone. Lifting her hand, she suddenly felt the surface beneath her feet starting to shake. This caused her to return her hand on the fence and hold on to it tightly while praying the shaking would cease. The vibrations went through her body, increasing the beating of her heart. "No. Not now. Please stop," she mumbled and as if someone had heard her, the shaking stopped. Now, if it could only remain that way, at least until she could get out of here. The sweating continued and that was soon accompanied with a slight dizziness. Emma lifted her hand again. "Brennan..… Adam! Anyone!" she wanted to shout into that ring as she was beginning to feel even more frightened by what she was surrounded.

"Emma? What is it?" Jesse's voice was heard.

"Jesse, I need help! Please!" she begged.

"I have you, we're on our way!" he responded.

"Hurry! I don't have much time!" she warned and gripped the fence once more. All her options of escaping were now drained. A moment after, her body again felt the vibrations of the shaking. The Psionic closed her eyes and started praying for her friends to arrive in time. 

*******

She had gotten a message earlier in the day from Don, some short low-life, a rotten example of a human being but the only person who was able to get a very rare drug that was of need to Adam. He had warned her to come alone or other wise he wouldn't show up and give her the drug. Emma was the only member of Mutant X who Don communicated with. Emma had felt uneasy by this, but she decided to go anyway. 

An hour after receiving the message, Emma had found herself in an old and abandoned factory. Being on the second floor, she then looked at the bridge; a flat wooden board was covering a piece of the bridge's surface where an original steel floor was missing. She carefully stepped on it and walked slowly, glancing at it and then at Don and hearing the small cracking noises with each step. Once she finally reached the steel and more secure part of the floor she pulled out her hand. "Give me the bottle," she said.

The short man walked backwards.

"Come on, Don! We don't have the entire day! Don't make me force you!" she threatened.

Don shook his head. 

Emma didn't like that answer. "Give me the bottle!" she said slowly and loudly.

"I'm not going to that bridge!" he said, gripping on the black bottle as if his life had depended on it.

Emma saw that she didn't have any other choice. Focusing her power, she was ready to force Don into stepping on the bridge and handing her the drug when the cracking noise of the board behind her, caught Emma's attention, suddenly distracting her. Quickly turning her head, she noticed the board breaking and then falling down, until a couple of seconds later its collapse was heard from the bottom. Returning her gaze to Don, Emma was once again distracted as something else happened on the ground. "Fire?!" A pinch of panic was felt inside as she saw the speed with which the fire was spreading down there on that black surface. Sharply raising her head, she shouted: "What the fuck did you do?" 

But Don didn't respond, only jumped from his spot and ran away.

"Wait!" Emma began running after him when a huge part of the bridge's floor in front of her suddenly collapsed. "That asshole!" She cursed. Looking up, he was nowhere in sight. Emma took a few steps back and after a 360 degree spin, she gripped on the fence.               

*******

"Hurry..…" she pleaded quietly as she felt scared but the dizziness increased and soon afterwards she fainted. 

********************

 When she woke up, Emma found herself lying on the ground close to some rocks. Hearing some whispers, she felt her face resting on some soft fabric and a beating of a heart behind it. 

"Emma?" hearing a voice, she looked up meeting Brennan's eyes. 

"Oh, the cavalry is here," Emma mumbled as she tried to raise her head.

"How are you feeling?" Jesse, crouching in front of her, asked.

"Like I've been sucking down on a damn chimney," and coughed.

"Woo..… easy..…easy," Brennan held her shoulders, helping her to lean forward. 

Sitting up, she grabbed her head and breathed deeply, letting the clean air enter her lungs. She felt a small headache appear. "Ouch..…" Shutting her eyes, she held her head and soon after felt a big cough coming on. 

When she was finished, the Psionic looked around and found herself a mile away from the now burning building. Feeling a bit messed up now, Emma wasn't sure if she had escaped the fire by herself or someone did help her. Her memory didn't obey her. "Fuck..…" she sat on the ground a while longer until she saw Jesse take her arm, helping the young mutant to stand up. 

"Are you ok?" Jesse asked her when he and Brennan saw the dirt on her face.

"Yeah, just having this small headache." She took in some more air.  "Sure took you guys a while to arrive," she then said.

"It was only fifteen minutes, Em," Brennan responded.

"Well in those fifteen minutes I could've easily died!" she shook her head.

"That's what we thought when we found you on that bridge up there," Jesse told her.

So they did safe her. Emma felt relived. 

Jesse looked over at the burning factory. "So, what happened here?" he asked.

"Don said he had the drug that Adam needed and..…"

"Don't tell me; he told you to come to this abandoned..…" Brennan pointed with his arm towards the building, "factory, _alone, so he could give you the drug, right?"_

"Yeah," Emma was close to being surprised.

Brennan sighed, shaking his head. "Then what happened?" 

"Well, I..…" they started walking towards the Helix, "found him in there and had to chaise him up this bridge when a fire broke out and before I knew it, I was stuck on this bridge without the chance to escape, with Don gone!"

"And after that?" Jesse asked.

"I don't know. I don't really remember anything afterwards, except that I felt dizzy and afterwards, I woke up..… there." She pointed behind her.

"You actually trusted that guy? You? A telempath, even!"

Emma glared at him. "Bren!"

"Em, I'm happy you're alright and everything but how could you trust that low-life?" 

This question caused them both to stop. 

"I'll admit that I did get odd feelings about this but I had to get that drug," she replied.

Brennan sighed annoyingly. "Did he at least have the drug with him?"

Emma nodded.

"Huh, at least something was ok." 

Emma could sense him being displeased by her action as it had nearly cost the Psionic her life. "God bless him for worrying, but does he have to be such a pain about it??" she asked herself while looking at him.

"And you didn't get it….."

"No, sorry, he got away."

Brennan gave a bitter laugh. "Perfect, you put your life in danger for something which didn't even turn out to be successful," he collapsed his arms.

"Hey, I wasn't anticipating that!"

"Em! You're a terrible liar," he told her.

"Oh right, I forgot. You're the king when it comes to that!"

"Guys!" Jesse had to shout over to his friends to stop them from starting a feud and he succeeded when Brennan and Emma turned their heads towards him. "Let's just go home, ok??"

Exchanging looks Emma and Brennan continued walking. "You need to stop being so gullible, Em," Brennan then said, not looking at her.

"I'm not gullible."

"You are."

"I'm not!"

"You are"

"I'm not!"

"You are!"

Jesse rolled his eyes as the Molecular picked up his pace to distance himself from those kids behind him. He had a feeling that they would continue going on like this through the entire trip. It certainly wouldn't be the first time.

********************

Feeling exhausted for today, Emma only wanted to take a quick shower and head to bed. Their silly little discussion had lasted the entire day, which quite understandably got on the others' nerves. Shalimar had threatened them that she would land them both in comas if they didn't just grow up and shut up; and Brennan and Emma even went at it in the lab but were chased away by Adam who had been busy, studying some blue gem that was found a few days ago. 

When the first wish was fulfilled, Emma dried off her hair and took a comb. While brushing her red locks, Emma snorted. "Me? Gullible? The nerve!" as she was saying the last word, she must've pulled down too hard as she felt a pain from that part of her scull. "Ouch! Ah!" Touching the place for a while, Emma put the comb down and turned around, heading towards her bed. 

Looking at it, she had to smile. The Psionic was proud of how well she could make up her bed every morning. "It's close to perfection," she thought and giggled before spreading the sheets and jumping on the bed. 

Sinking into the comfortable pillows, Emma stared in front of her for awhile. She thought about how Brennan treated her today. It wasn't anything unusual or different but it had still entered her head, remaining there for some time, until she felt her tiredness kick in again. Emma reached for the nightstand. "Oh I pity the girl who marries that man one day," she said quietly and turned sideways, placing her head in the right position so it would once again sink into the softness of the pillows. Emma closed her eyes. "Married? Brennan?" she giggled, "yeah, that'll be the day!" making a joke for herself Emma surrendered to her sleep.    

********************

She didn't know what time came but Emma felt her sleepiness leaving her. She did however feel that the room got lighter. "Ah, yeah….. it's morning already..… when did it come?" Emma opened her eyes and glanced at the clock: 7:26 in the morning. "Per-..…" her senses suddenly rose up. There was someone else in the room, she felt. That was confirmed very shortly after when she felt an arm placing itself on her waist. Looking at it, she trailed the arm up and her eyes opened in such a shock that as Emma quickly pulled away, it didn't leave her enough room, making her fall on the floor. 

That thump seemed to have disturbed his sleep as Brennan lifted his head. "Mm…" he muttered something, looking at the direction where the noise came from. His eyes tried to adjust to the weak natural light in the room as he kept widening and squeezing them; when he noticed Emma sitting on the floor with one of the bed sheets around her, staring at him with shock in her eyes and on her face.

"Good morning, gorgeous," his rough voice was heard as he showed a tamed smile. 

Emma watched him with a slightly opened mouth. It nearly seemed like he must've slept in the nude, when..… Emma rapidly looked down at her self and noticed that she was naked! "Shit!" She hastily wrapped the bed sheet around her small body as best as she could while sitting.

"What are you doing here??" not knowing whether to be angry or to just give into the shock, Emma was momentarily unable to stand up. 

Brennan jerked his head back. "That's a nice way to wish someone a good morning," he said.

Emma tried to see if perhaps he had been drunk but she couldn't pick up anything unusual; everything seemed in order in there..… oddly enough. 

"Brennan, what are you doing in my bed??" she demanded to know.

"Honey, are you ok?" he asked.

"Honey?" Emma sprinted. "This is not funny!" she didn't like it when he would pull some prank like that. But he had never gone to this extreme. 

"Em, honey?" he called her.

"Third time, Bren, what are you doing in my bed??" It was embarrassing enough that both of them were nude in her eyes but in the same bed?!

"Aren't a wife and husband supposed to sleep in the same bed?" he then asked.

"What??" This news totally blew her off her tracks. She wanted to see if he was playing with her but no, the Elemental was completely honest. Taking a step back, Emma then managed to finally notice the room. It was different; not only bigger but the colors of the walls were changed, the pictures, the closets..…"What's going on here?" she asked herself.

********************


	2. chapter 2

********************

"Honey, are you ok?"

"Will you stop calling me honey?!" This was freaking the Psionic out. "I must be in the wrong room," she thought. With this, Emma ran away with only the sheet around her, and into the hallway. She almost slid on the floor when her eyes noticed Jesse climbing the stairs.

"Wow, Emma. New fashion trend?" he teased her when seeing Emma in her 'new outfit'. 

He appeared the same as when she last saw him. "Maybe I did get the wrong room," she thought. "Hey… Jesse… you're up early," she said, trying to suppress her earlier shock.

"Yeah, that should happen for a change, don't you think?" he nodded. "What's up with you?"

"I don't know, I think I got the wrong room... sleepwalked or something 'cause I woke up next to Brennan!" and tried to make an eerie expression. She then noticed his baffled gaze. 

"Why? You two don't like your room?"

"Us, two?"

"Did Brennan start snoring?" Jesse crossed his arms, wanting to laugh.

"No… I mean how should I know?!"

"Man, married life is getting to you both, eh? Well, of course it would. I know you and Brennan were running away from even the word "marriage" like it was a damn plague."

"Ok, this is a joke, right? A joke you and Bre-…"

"Auntie Emma!" A small child with light blond hair around the age of five ran towards the two mutants. 

Emma stared at the little girl, who approached her and Jesse; her little eyes smiling at Emma.  

"Mummy said that you would take me to the zoo today," the little girl took Emma's hand and began to pull her away.

"Wait, wait…" Emma glanced at Jesse.

"Something wrong?" he asked.

"Yeah, for one, who's this little girl?" Emma wanted to ask but she kept her thought to herself and kneeled down instead, stopping the child. "I can't... I... who's…" but Emma didn't have to ask when she heard a voice.

"Mona, I told you, after breakfast!" Shalimar rushed upstairs and toward the child. 

"Hey, good morning, Emma." The Feral smiled and picked up Mona. 

"She's… she's yours?" Emma was taken by another shock as she got the picture.   

The blond mutant laughed at this and kissed her daughter. "Of course she is." Shalimar watched her daughter placing her small arms around the Feral's neck and kissing her cheek. "Couldn't you wait?" she asked Mona.

"Well you said…" the little girl wanted to start but Shalimar stopped her.

"Not today."

"But mummy!"

"Sorry Mon, but no." The Feral wanted to be serious at this but the playfulness over took her as she smiled at Mona.

Emma immediately looked over at Jesse. "Is she yours, too? Or… or Brennan's?" 

Both Shalimar and Jesse showed staggered faces to this question. "Emma, are you ok?" Shalimar asked. 

It was now that Emma noticed the Feral having longer hair than that from the last time the Psionic was with her, which should have been yesterday. "What's going on here?" Emma asked herself. "Something's wrong," saying out loud she shook her head.

"Emma?" Brennan soon appeared behind her.

Spinning around in an instant, Emma noticed the tall Elemental standing there with only boxers on. Taking steps back, Emma slowly started distancing herself from the four people. 

"Honey?" Brennan called her.

"This isn't real. I'm dreaming. I know I am." But if Emma was dreaming, this had been the most realistic dream she's ever had. She was beginning to have trouble accepting her 'new' surroundings. 

Emma ran her hand through her hair when she noticed a tiny scar on Brennan's left arm. "When did he get that?" she wondered inside. "You didn't have that scar," she then told Brennan.

The elemental glanced at the marking and then back at his wife. "Are you ok?" he asked her.

"I asked the same question," Jesse said.

She then noticed a silver ring on her hand. Looking more carefully at it, the Psionic was astonished to see it as she hadn't had this ring before. It had two initials engraved on it: "B. and E.??" she read to herself and then suddenly grabbed Brennan's left hand; the same ring was on his finger. 

Emma rushed to the room behind her. It was different, everything was different. She hadn't remembered a room like this being in Sanctuary. 

Sanctuary… was this where she really was? Emma walked backwards and out of the room. When she met the others, she asked: "Where am I?"

"Um... home?" Jesse replied.

Emma wanted to run away, but Brennan managed to catch her in time. "This is not Sanctuary." Emma kept moving her eyes. 

"Of course it is, Em." Brennan corrected her.

"Mummy, what's wrong with Auntie Emma?" Mona asked her mother.

"I don't know, baby." Shalimar responded, still looking at Emma.

"This isn't Sanctuary; I don't remember this place!" Emma said. She then looked at the others. Maybe this was some experiment from Genomex. Maybe they've kidnapped her and these are not her friends. They couldn't be… at least not in the way she remembered them. "Where am I?" she asked again.

"Honey… you are back home. You're at Sanctuary." Brennan spoke calmly to his wife.  

Emma stared blankly back at him.

"Don't you remember?" he asked her.

Emma shook her head in response. This wasn't Sanctuary. Sure, it looked like the place but it was still different. She felt Brennan's weak grip on her arms as she looked in his eyes. She got images of them… herself and Brennan… Jesse, Shalimar, Adam… it was him; Emma clearly felt that it was really Brennan. It wasn't a trick, this was really her friend. But they couldn't be, married? How could she not remember? No, she was somewhere else; this wasn't the place Emma remembered before this morning. "Last night I went to bed…" Emma spoke quietly and somewhat afraid, "...in my room, _alone_. And this morning I woke up in a room I didn't recognize… with _you in my bed!" Emma broke away from Brennan. "So, could anyone please explain where am I??"_

"Emma, for the last time, you're back at Sanctuary! Just like yesterday... just like every day since you've lived here," Shalimar told her.  

"I'm gonna get Adam," Jesse said to Shalimar and ran downstairs.  

"This is a joke, right… guys? It's a joke," Emma kept nodding her head. 

"Why would it be a joke?" Brennan lifted his shoulders.

"Because this isn't where I live!" Emma felt endlessly confused by this.

"Did you hit your head last night? Lost a memory or two?" Shalimar asked with the intention to turn it into a joke.

"No! Shalimar, I'm not…" Emma sighed, covering her face. "God..." her voice vary, "where am I?" 

"Emma?" When she uncovered her face, Emma saw Adam approaching her. 

"What's going on?" the older man asked.

"She thinks this is not Sanctuary," Shalimar said.

"In fact, she doesn't seem to know where she is," Jesse filled in.

"Maybe you've just had a bad dream," Brennan said softly, placing his hand on her back but Emma only moved away.

"Emma, you don't know this place?" Adam asked her carefully.

"Mummy… I need to pee..." Mona was then heard. 

Shalimar glanced at her daughter. "Ok, Mon…" and then looked over at Emma. "Let's go," she said and carrying Mona, Shalimar walked towards the end of the hall. 

"It looks like Sanctuary, but it can't be. I don't remember this… I gotta be in some other place," Emma said.

"No, you are back at Sanctuary, Emma." Adam assured her, lifting his hand.

Emma looked over at Brennan. He too was baffled by her behavior.  

"Come to the lab with me," Adam asked her. "I should perhaps do a checkup…"

Emma hesitated but she didn't have much choice. This was a familiar looking but still a strange environment and if anyone could give her an answer it had to be Adam… if he was the same, too. 

She nodded. 

"You might want to put some clothes on, first," Brennan mentioned and met her gaze.

"Um… yeah…" Emma placed a strain of hair behind her ear. Glancing at him she then slowly started walking towards the bedroom.

"We'll be right down," Brennan told Adam who agreed and went downstairs. As he followed her into the room, the Elemental saw Emma standing close to the bed, looking at the picture on the wall. 

There was a big poster over the bed, which primarily caught her attention. It showed a picture of two white swans with their necks almost entwined as if they were caught in a dance of love. At the bottom, Emma could read: "_Love is eternal." _

"This is a beautiful picture," she had to say.

"Um, yeah … it is."

Turning around Emma unexpectedly glanced at his chest, instead of face. Quickly she looked up at him as the Elemental placed his hand on her cheek. "Sweetie, what's going on?" he asked her softly. "Are you sure you didn't have a bad dream?"

Emma pulled away. "Yeah, I'm sure," she replied quietly and walked behind him. 

"Where are… my clothes?" she asked, looking confusingly in front of her. 

"To your left," Brennan replied as he kept wondering if something had happened to Emma. She appeared confused in this room, as it had been the first time for her, everything new and unfamiliar while her gentle little hands gripped onto the bed sheet tightly to her chest. He saw her walking slowly and soundlessly; her small feet pressing on the hard floor with each step giving the feeling that she was nearly feline     

Emma noticed that there were some scattered clothes near the drawers. "Oh…" She thought and snatched the white bra and panties, along with a pair of black jeans and a red tee top. Afterwards the Psionic saw the door to the bathroom. She glanced at Brennan and then quickly went inside. 

Locking the door behind her, Emma had some time to have a good look at the bathroom. Along with the usual essentials of which one bathroom was equipped, Emma saw two toothbrushes above the sink; turning to the left she saw two bottles of different conditioners and two bottles of shampoos; right next to the shower booth was a long light green robe and a few towels with the same color. Emma shook her head; she didn't want to look for any more 'details' of this room. Taking a step to her left, she felt something softer beneath her foot. Removing the foot, Emma noticed a small square-shaped package. It had a condom inside. Emma bent down, while still holding the bed sheet around her, and picked up the small red package. "Oh please don't tell me we've… I mean, they've... ah!" Emma put the condom on the edge of the sink. "Ah, shit…" she inhaled and turned around where she saw her pile of clothing. Letting go of the sheet, she removed it from her body and right afterwards grabbed the underwear.      

After a while, Emma exited the bathroom, fully clothed, except for her feet which were left bare. 

********************

"No, I don't see anything unusual here," Adam replied as he kept looking to find something abnormal. 

"That's because there's nothing strange about me." Emma sighed but she was in no way relaxed. When the scanning was finished, she stood up and approached Adam. 

"Adam…" she said, "I..." but something suddenly caught her attention. There was a smaller glass cube with a blue gem inside. Emma recognized that sapphire; but from where? Observing it for a while she tried to remember but it wasn't coming to her at the moment so she returned her gaze to Adam. "I don't think I belong here. This can't be Sanctuary, at least not the one I know. In the place that I do know… my Sanctuary, Shalimar doesn't have a child and Brennan and I, we just had a stupid heated discussion last night about who was better at reading people and some other crap. I don't even… ok I like him, but we're not… married! Everything here is like so damn weird!" 

"You're probably just suffering from some minor memory loss," Adam told her.

"Minor? You didn't detect anything and if it's so minor how in hell can I not remember what would be like… like," she pointed around, "six or seven years maybe??"

"Why that long?" Brennan asked.

"Because I already told you! Before I woke up… here, things were… are different; I mean the only thing which I see that is probably the same is with it Jesse. Everything else is different. Shalimar doesn't have a child! And you and I aren't married! We weren't even dating for god's sake!" 

"Wow… ok," Brennan nodded once and approached Emma, placing his hand near her neck. "What else is different?" he asked her.

Emma glanced down. "I, um… the room... where I woke up; these green plants here," she pointed outside at the two small plants, one on each side of the entrance, "you being a jerk from our last talk," and looked up at Brennan, receiving a strange look in return. 

"That discussion about?…"

"You kept saying I was a naïve and I was telling you I wasn't."

"Oh," a rounded smile, expressing his soft cheeks, appeared, "I do remember that one." A nod followed. 

"You do?"

"Yeah. It ended up undecided," he said.

"Yes, it… did," Emma was surprised by this answer. That _was what happened. Was she merely being confused? No, this was only a tiny coincidence, it didn't mean anything. There was no way she couldn't remember so much of her life. _

This time Emma didn't pull away from Brennan; she stayed there. "This can't be my life," she then said, "this can't even be my reality! I don't belong here. It doesn't feel right. Bren… Jesse, Adam, you gotta believe me."

From the looks they were giving her, Emma could feel that they didn't believe her. 

"It sounds strange to you, but…" she saw the words wouldn't be of any help. Emma closed her eyes for a second and opened them again as she wanted to send her own images to them but a sudden sharp pain in her head prevented her from doing that. "Argghh!" she screamed and grabbed her head, crouching on the floor as the pain intensified.

"Em!" Brennan embraced her before she fell on the floor. A few moments later he saw her starting to breath in as much air as it was possible; the pain had obviously passed. "What happened?" he asked her when the Elemental saw her regain her strength.

"I don't know… ah…" Emma had now only her right hand on her head as she slowly stood up while leaning on Brennan. Her eyes kept closing and opening while she was adjusting herself. The pain was gone. "My head just started stinging inside, almost burning," she responded and slowly parted from Brennan even though she could feel that he would rather have her in his embrace… worrying fellow.

"Are you alright now?" Jesse asked.

"Yeah," Emma nodded. "It passed. Shit, did it hurt… ah…" taking in a deep breath she looked around.

"I should have another look at you," Adam told her.

"No, no…I'm fine," she said. The pain had really disappeared just as swiftly as it had arrived. She didn't have the opportunity to think about it when her attention was soon focused somewhere else.  

Brennan looked at Emma and noticed her absent gaze. "Em?"

Emma was looking at the small glass cube again. "Adam, how did you get that?" she asked.

Adam turned to look at it. "Devin's gem?" 

"Yes."

Adam turned to Emma again bemused by her question. "You and Brennan found it in the basement of an abandoned steel factory," he said.

"Before it burned down," Brennan filled in. "You don't remember?"

"No… how can me… eh, I wasn't there…" Emma shook her head and walked towards the cube. "Any value?" Emma opened the cube and brought her hand inside to take the stone, but the minute her fingers touched its rough surface she felt them burning. Quickly pulling out her hand she then held it in her other one.  

"You ok?" Brennan asked when he noticed her reaction. 

"Yes, I'm fine," she looked at her fingers where a small burned mark was shown only to disappear a moment after. "It burned."

"You always wore gloves before touching it, Emma." Adam told her.

Emma glanced at him. "Why did you need it?" she referred to the stone. 

"I'm not sure yet. It has some energy to it, but I haven't been able to discover what it is, what it does."

"How long have you had it?"

"A month now. Emma, maybe I should examine you again?" 

"No. I'm fine." Emma then thought: "A month? No, he had this stone, if it's the same one, for only a few days." Observing its shape she asked Adam: "Are you sure? It was less than that I think."

"No, it has been a month. I should examine you again," Adam then told her.

She hesitated for some seconds, "Maybe there's something outside," she said and quickly exited the lab. 

Brennan sighed to this, "Em!" before he rushed after the Psionic.

When the two mutants were gone Jesse asked: "What do you think happened to her?"

"I don't know," Adam crossed his arms. "Did she seem strange to you yesterday?"

"No," Jesse looked towards the entrance.

"She does appear different in her behavior."

"Do you think she might be telling the truth?"

"It's unlikely…" Adam wasn't certain of his answer. The Psionic's behavior developed questions in the scientist's head. Looking at the open cube, Adam walked over to it and carefully closed it.

********************


	3. chapter 3

********************

"Hey! Wait!" Brennan rushed towards her, managing to grab Emma's arm before she went through the door.

"What??" Emma sounded annoyed.

"You can't go out!" he told her.

"Why the hell not?"

"Because it's not safe! The virus is still active and you know that it might be like that for two more days."

"What virus?" Emma gazed at him with the question marks never once disappearing from her face. 

"You've no idea about that either?"

"No!" 

Brennan's grip loosened. "It's this mutated virus only lethal to mutants that's been going through this city for a day now."

"How?? How did it happen?"

"We don't know."

"… well can it be stopped?"

Brennan nodded. "There's a way to control it and it's going to be taken care of in a couple of days, but until then all mutants can't go out on those streets."

"You're sure?"

"Yes!" 

He was telling the truth. Emma glanced at the side. "So, it's happening again, then," she thought. "So…we're stuck here for now?" she asked him.

"Yeah."

"Great," Emma groaned and walked away but stopped in front of the stairs. She looked up; the setting seemed different. "Green walls?!" she thought almost choked on it. Instead of going up, she circled the stairs and continued forward hoping to see the small Japanese meditation garden and even the dojo while she was at it. "Ok, this is still here…" Emma nodded when noticing the garden… only it was bigger and there were a couple of strange green plants surrounding it even two smaller palm trees. Slowly stepping on the platform, Emma placed her hands on her waist and observed the tiny area. She felt the floor being warm which appeared odd to her. Glancing down, Emma caught her feet with her eyes: she still hadn't put anything on them. No wonder they were getting the cruel treatment of the constant cold-warm change. 

Lifting her head up, Emma noticed that amazingly the dojo was there after all. Looking in front of her, Emma came to the edge of the platform and glanced at the water. There were perhaps a dozen colorful fish swimming in it. "Hmm…" Turning around, Emma saw that there were four waterfalls. "This is not Sanctuary…" she told herself. 

"Going down memory lane?" his voice soon made the Psionic to spin around and catch him standing closely to the platform with his thumbs in his pockets; it was then that Emma noticed just how differently this man was dressed than from the last time she saw him… in her reality. White loose pants and bloody red sweater with some black lines drawn on the front. Although she was still exploring the, for her, strange surrounding, for a moment it paused as her eyes stopped on his face. 

Shaking her head, she touched it as the feeling of a headache appeared for a couple of seconds, causing her to close her eyes. "Yeah," she replied and opened her blues. 

"Wanna go up?" he asked and pointed to the dojo.

Emma took a glimpse of the destination. "Um, why?" she asked.

"Maybe to help you 'refresh' your memory?" he offered.

"Aha… really…" looking now back at him, Emma bit her lip. "Um," she got down and closer to the Elemental, "ok," she replied with hesitancy.

Brennan took her hand and led her up the stairs. His hand was warm. Emma glanced at his scar; she had to ask about that later. But she suddenly stopped him: "No. It's ok. Not… today," she responded.

Brennan turned to her. "Do you know which program I was going to activate?" 

Emma shook her head; she truly had no idea, much like for everything else. "Can I ask, um…" she swallowed, "what did we do last night?" Emma was going to give into that notion that she might have been there and did have a short memory loss because the curiosity, especially when her eyes landed on his face when she stood on the garden platform, got the best of her… as usual. The look she got from Brennan as a response was not only astonished but it had ounces of small disappointment which despite that it truly shouldn't, reached Emma inside. 

"We had sex," he replied shortly and in an instant Emma received those images which almost threw her back; tossed sheets, sweating bodies, loud moans, fingers traveling everywhere and like a thick sweet river, a feeling from those moments flowed into her and filled parts of her consciousness. The Psionic took a step back and let go of Brennan's arm; the feeling affected her temperature and even the rhythm of her heart as they rose up for two intense seconds. "Oh," Emma rubbed her arms, looking on the side. Because of the effect the feeling had on her, she now hoped this really was another reality otherwise she would curse herself for not remembering that night, and with Brennan out of all people. Her eyes returned to him. "Ok," she quietly responded and went down the stairs. If this was a different reality, shouldn't she encounter herself? Heaven forbid she could've actually traveled forward into the future. Whatever it was, if she did travel somewhere, exactly how did she get here? 

Emma journeyed with her gaze in front of her and heard Brennan's quiet footsteps behind her. "This is a dream," she thought, "screw the intense reality of it all, it _has_ to be a dream!" and sighed. Except for those changes which the Psionic saw earlier, everything else seemed the same. "But it's not Sanctuary… it can't be. How did I get here? What am I doing her?" Her thinking was then interrupted with Brennan's touch on her left arm. "Would you like to eat something?" he asked softly.

Emma looked at him; from the moment she woke up, she never heard that tone change, at least for her; when he would talk with the others it was slightly crude. "Please let this not be real…" she begged inside. "He isn't my husband." But she then nodded. "Sure," she agreed, deciding to play along; perhaps she would learn more this way... and besides, she did feel hungry.   

********************

Sitting on the "red?" table, Emma looked over at Shalimar who had been sitting on the opposite side, feeding her daughter. The site seemed very heartwarming to the Psionic; the way the Feral was being attentive towards her child gave the picture of a true mother, both human and feline, being true to her maternal instincts. "She would make a good mum," Emma thought to herself. "She's really adorable," she then said loudly.

Shalimar glanced at Emma and smiled. "Oh she's the most beautiful little girl in the whole…" and then the child spread her arms "The whoooole…" Mona joined in. "Whole world," both mutants spoke those two words at the same time and giggled. 

This strangely brought a smile to the Psionic's face. Mona had her mother's exact lips and nose. "Who's her father anyway?" Emma asked herself.  She wanted to pop up this question but somehow she didn't feel that it was appropriate at this moment. "Yes, she is," instead she agreed with Shalimar and Mona. Shortly afterwards, Brennan sat next to her. Looking at her plate, Emma noticed vegetables… strange; she noticed vegetables on every dish. "Is this a vegetarian thing?" she asked.

Brennan handed her the chopsticks. "It's been that way since the first day here, honey," he responded.

"That pet name again," Emma shivered for a moment. Taking the sticks, she glanced over at her 'husband'. "Brennan, could you please not use that name?" she asked.

Another strange look as his movements slowed down, "Ok…" he responded and quickly before even Emma could back away, kissed her head.

Emma touched that spot and returned to her food. "What's happening here???" she screamed for an answer inside. 

"What did Adam say?" when finally managing to give herself a break from playing with Mona, Shalimar asked.

"She has probably hit her head," Brennan responded and took a piece of food in his mouth.

This made Emma to almost stare at his face due to that answer. 

"Aww, so you are suffering a memory loss, Emma?" Shalimar looked over at her.

"Well Adam couldn't find anything…" Emma responded, "but that's 'cause…."

"It can't be detected, it's probably some telempathic thing," Brennan finished for her even though that wasn't the answer which the Psionic was planning on giving.

"Ah ok. So you don't remember much?" the Feral asked.

"I don't remember because I don't seem to belong here," Emma said.

"That does happen when you forget things," Brennan told her.

The Psionic gave him a weak look and then returned to Shalimar. "No, this can't be my home. So much is different here. The garden, the dojo, this table, the rooms…"

"Did Adam do a double check on you?" Shalimar asked.

"Yes! This isn't the place where I live."

Shalimar smiled. "It'll come back to you, Emma, don't worry," and returned her attention to her daughter.  

Emma felt that the Feral didn't believe her. It would've been useless to continue with her arguments – another thing which she felt. She then glanced at Brennan who was eating and sighed, looking back at her own meal. "I might as well put something in me…" she thought and began eating as well.  

********************

"Ok now, we're done," Shalimar said and got up. "See you two later."

"Yeah." Brennan smiled and took in the last piece of food.

Watching them leave, Emma squeezed her chopsticks and returned to her tray. Putting the chopsticks down, she stared at her plate and placed her hands between her knees. "Who's Mona's father?" she finally asked and glanced over at Brennan. "Please let it not be you!" she hoped inside. 

"John."

"Sorry?"

"John… ah I never could remember his last name. He was a Feral just like Shalimar."

"Where is he now?"

Brennan kept quiet for a while. "He's dead," he replied.

"Oh…" Emma looked down. "How did he die?"

"He and Shalimar went on an assignment. He got stabbed… badly."

Turning her gaze towards the direction where the Feral and her daughter had disappeared, she suddenly felt bad for her … friend. "How long has it been?" she asked.

"Four years. Mona was only a month old when it happened."

Feeling the strange tears flowing down through her body, Emma clenched her fists and then slowly released them, putting her hands on the table. "Were they married?" she returned her eyes to Brennan.

"No, they thought it was too soon with those three years." 

"Ok… how… was he like?"

"Um, hon-… I mean, Em, you better talk with Shalimar about that. She can give you more information than me," he told her.

Emma then felt something strange in him. "Why were you jealous?" despite not being the right situation, the Psionic wasn't saved from a weak smile.

Brennan stared at his wife for a while as he had hoped she wouldn't ask him about that. "Telempaths!" he chuckled. "I guess it's good that you don't remember that. When we met him, he started coming on to you for a while. And that was _not_ easy for me."

"Were we?"

"Involved? Yeah, we were… well, sort of. You and Shalimar did complement the guy on his 'good looks' and well, we were still at the beginning. You and I didn't get deep into our relationship yet but still…"

He didn't have to say it, Emma could sense it very clearly and despite all it give her a sense of flattery. She knew he was possessive but… "You hit him?" a surprised question followed.

"Once." Brennan shrugged. "The thought of zapping him with a bolt felt too brutal so that was a better alternative."

"You got so jealous? Wow, Brennan."  

"Yes, I know. But now…" he took the Psionic's hand and kissed it. "It was worth it."

"That's sweet." She nodded and glanced at her left with a sigh. She knew this was weird and not her place but she did get the lingering feeling of liking it. Then the thought of Mona's father lowered her smile as she thought for a while with the silence which appeared, helping.

"I'm going to go back to… our room," she then said and slowly got up before quietly climbing the stairs.

Brennan watched her. "What happened to you Emma?" he wondered watching the tiny Psionic arrive on the other floor. "When did you lose so much of your memory?" A sigh left his lips. Looking down at the empty trays, he stood up and picked them up before getting a short glimpse of her disappearing figure behind the pale shadows of the corridor.  

********************

Arriving inside their room, Emma slowed down her pace.  She remembered how much her home had changed. There was another floor. _Another floor! And a corridor she had to pass through which had been the possible reason why she hadn't seen all those changes when going to see Adam; Brennan didn't say much during that time. "Brennan…" she breathed out his name as she was certain his concern was growing while they were both walking towards the laboratory. Lowering her head, she gathered her hands, squeezing her thin fingers as much as she could until they almost turned purple, but she pulled back at the last moment when she realized she was in the room where she had awoken this morning. _

There was the poster to her right. She walked forward and noticed three larger pictures placed on the soft blue wall in that order as to form a triangle. Her eyes started with the top picture that nearly stunned the Psionic. Two people were on it; Brennan with a soft and one could tell happy smile on his face as a simple white loose shirt and pants were all that covered his body, also a long necklace of red flowers around his neck and resting on his chest; herself… a simple white long dress with spaghetti straps and beautiful wreath on her head with red, yellow and white blooms, a wide smile and long loose hair; their hands joined together with the silver rings showing as they were standing on what appeared to be a beach. "Hawaii?" she asked. His strong arm was wrapped around her waist as only their faces were turned towards the camera. Touching the photo she slightly shivered knowing this might have been… no, this had been their wedding. 

Her blues then traveled lower to the left picture. Brennan and Emma again, only this time with Shalimar next to Emma in a short white strapless dress. On the side of Brennan was Jesse with a nice tiny beard and he too was dressed in white, similar to Brennan. "Huh, a white wedding…" she thought and directed her gaze to the final picture on this side of the room. The, no doubt, newlyweds, sitting in a small canoe with Brennan's arms wrapped tightly around her waist as the couple were sharing a tender kiss. This one for some reason, Emma liked the most; it seemed truly romantic and intimate… 'Love', it said; the picture spelled out 'love' in her mind. Emma distanced herself from this wall. 

Turning to her left, Emma noticed a few scattered photographs on the top opened drawer. Coming closer, she saw that the pictures were, unsurprisingly, of her and Brennan, taken in this room by only them. One was of the Elemental sleeping on his stomach with his face almost sinking in the pillows giving the photo a funny feature that pulled out a giggle from Emma. Then another one was of her holding a towel in front of her with her hand stretched out towards the camera and her face in shock; he must've captured this one while she had been in the bathroom. The photographs were of amazingly good quality, Emma noticed. Another that caught her attention was of her holding a baby in her arms and along with Brennan nearly melting over the infant. Someone else had taken this. The photo gave her a funny warm feeling inside. Turning the photo, "Bren and Em with the little Mona. Nov. 21st," was written with a red marker and it was her handwriting. "This one's sweet…" she whispered and put the photo down. Then a forth followed: another humorous one with Brennan asleep and Emma with a giggling expression, painting the fingernails on his right toe with a bright pink nail polish. "This one is quite mean," she said and giggled. 

********************

Putting the last black tray in its place, Brennan glanced up.

"Hey, how is she?" Jesse approached him.

"Um, still a little lost." Placing his hands on his waist, the Elemental turned to the Molecular. "I didn't think she could forget so many… important things."

"Like?"

Brennan gave his friend a sharp look. "Well, us for one thing…"

Jesse looked up at the stairs. "Is she upstairs?"

"Aha."

"Adam was particularly baffled by her behavior."

"Shouldn't that count all of us?"

"Yeah, but the way she was looking at the Devin's gem got his attention."

"What was so strange about it?"

"You know how she and Adam worked almost every night on it?"

"It was odd, yeah."

"He said she had started acting strange lately."

"He told you that now?"

Jesse nodded.

"Huh, I didn't notice anything unusual about her."

"Well you wouldn't. It was only while she was near that blue thing."

"Oh… no wonder she acted somewhat weird two nights ago when I came in to bring her a few snacks, I just thought she was tired."

"Adam thinks it might have something to do with the gem."

"Her behavior?" 

"Yep."   

"Well if it does shouldn't it have some other effect? I mean, just erasing her memories like that… seems, I don't know, stupid."

"Maybe she does remember but she's not aware?"

"That's pretty naïve. No, she really has no clue, Jesse. You should see her look when you mention something which she obviously should remember… Why would Adam think that the gem could do that?"   

"I don't know. Maybe he found something."

"Hm… I'm gonna talk to him." Brennan said and went towards the laboratory.

"Ok." Jesse watched him leave and when the Elemental was gone, he looked back at the stairs again and this time he walked up on the third floor. 

********************

Emma was sitting on the bed going through a diary with dark purple covers that she had found. From the writings inside it had appeared to be hers. _"Bren and I had the 'baby talk' again yesterday. I could feel that he was ready this time… to be a dad. It really made me excited; it made us both excited. Can you believe it?? Eight years of being together and now this happening. Wow… I hope we'll manage to make a baby tonight. God, I'm so happy!" Emma stopped. "Baby??" She quickly looked down at her belly and touched it. "Please let this be a damn dream." She shook her head and hesitated for a few moments before she returned her eyes to the black handwriting on the yellow pages of the diary. There was another entry after this one but she decided to go back to the earlier entries. _

"February 12th." This one had been written five years before the last one she read. The upper right edge of the page was bent. Straightening it, Emma began to read: _"How can you not adore him. We walked by the lake and the little devil wanted to throw me in the water! Clothes and all! Good thing I'm a Telempath though, sometimes it's a real lifesaver; otherwise I don't know what I would've done being stuck in those wet clothes. But we had a pretty enjoyable make-out session behind a tree; it was his way of making up for that thought about the lake. NO complaints, hehe. I had trouble walking afterwards for some minutes. Oh he leaves me drained each time!_

_We took a walk in the park and the weather was lovely: sunny and everything. Bren and I talked about a second honeymoon. Well, it was his idea and I gotta say I like it. But we're so busy with Mutant X, it keeps our calendar full and sometimes I can sense it from everyone that it's really getting to them. Oh well, for now we'll have to wait. But we thought about the __Seychelles__; I saw a broacher about them a couple of days ago; they would be perfect._

_Then all of a sudden it started to rain! I mean pouring down like crazy! Bren and I ran to the nearest shelter which oddly enough happened to be a toilet! Go figure… anyway, since we were alone…we did get physically carried away once again… mm."_

Emma felt embarrassed. "Good thing it ended there."The Psionic went a couple of pages forward.__

She stopped at one marked July 15th. "No date…" Emma started reading: _"Oh, we saw Mona for the very first time today. She is the cutest thing you've ever seen in your life! Poor Shal, all those hours of labor tired her out, but she's still bursting with energy. I envy her; wish I could be so vital all the time, but that's the genes for you. She handed Mona over for me to hold her. Those pretty little blue eyes. She looked more of Jesse than John! Ok, ok she would kill me if she read this, but good thing she can't, hehe. Mona was so cute! They're so lucky. _

_Brennan whispered in my ear as I held her: 'Imagine when you become a mum'. He's such a tease. But yeah, I did develop this wish to become a mother, too. It's too soon though. Bren and I are enjoying our time alone for now. There will be enough time to start a family._

_John was blooming when we saw him. I honestly haven't seen anyone happier than him and Shal… alright, that's not true… it sort of reminded me of Bren's face on the morning he proposed to me and I said 'yes'… ah his face was unforgettable. I love that man to death. Oh, but I should get back to what I was saying before I get carried away… Brennan does this to me every time! God, if I only didn't love him so much!" _

Emma giggled to this. _"See, I'm doing it again! Grr… alright, so as I was saying, John and Shal were in heaven._ _It made us happy just seeing them like that. John's a nice guy; him and Shal are so perfect together and Mona makes it all the more complete..." She stopped__. "Poor Shal…"__ she thought. Closing the diary, Emma looked in front of her. "Um…" she stood up and walked out of the room. _

********************


	4. chapter 4

********************

"How's your trip going?"

This question turned Emma's head towards the doorway where she saw Brennan standing. "What trip?"

"Memory lane?"

"Oh yeah… a little unusual but it's alright."

Brennan nodded. "Good," he said and approached his wife. "Adam thinks that the Devin's gem may have something to do with your condition."

"The so-called 'loss of memory'?"

"Yep."

"How?"

"He said that there may be some unusual energy waves coming from the stone that have been affecting you lately, especially your behavior."

"My behavior…?"

"Well Adam seems to be the only who said that you were becoming more nervous when you and him would study the stone."

"Really…"

"Aha."

"So then, how could this…gem, have affected my…" she shrugged, "memory?"

"He doesn't know yet." A silent sigh left his lips as the Elemental placed his hand on her cheek and kept it there. "Funny, if something has happened to you, I certainly haven't noticed it. And me who knows you more than anyone… or so you keep telling me." A smile wanting to be transformed into a chuckle was produced but it quickly faded by her confused gaze. "You don't seem to believe me?"

"No, I do… but even if Adam's right… I still do not think my memory could've been erased just like that. I'm a damn Psionic for god's sake! It can't be the gem; it can't be some silly bump on the head…"

"Then what do you think it is?"

Emma looked down and then somewhere on the side. "I don't know…" she shrugged. The Psionic then noticed that the light outside had faded and it had been replaced by calm darkness. "How did it get dark so quickly?" she wondered. Emma was certain that not more than eight hours had passed and it couldn't get like this with such speed. "Why is it so dark?" she then asked, still looking outside.

Brennan joined her in the glance of the outside. "Perhaps you just lost track of time?" he suggested.

"No, no. It was morning… _early_ morning when I woke up. It didn't even reach the evening."

"Why? Does the day time you last remember remain longer?"

"Well, yeah… it's usually twelve hours."

"Twelve?" Brennan was surprised by this.

Emma looked back at him. "Yeah, twelve."

"Oh, Em… you really don't remember much," he started brushing her cheek whilst his eyes observed her almost forlornly. "It's eight hours…" he corrected her.

"No, it's not. It's twelve!"

Brennan slowly shook his head.

Emma pulled away, giving the Elemental a hesitant gaze. The hairs on her skin were beginning to rise up as she was retrieving her defensive stand. "How long is the night then?" she asked.

"Around eleven."

"Nineteen hours? An entire day and night cycle is eighteen hours?"

"Yeah."

"Since when?"

"Um, since forever."

"As I know, Brennan, it's twenty four, not nineteen." 

Brennan crossed his arms. "Perhaps you're just tired? You had a long day."

"Long day? Eight hours is a long day??"

"Yes."

Emma shook her head, not wanting to think that even the days and nights here were different. "Damn it!" she threw her arms down and formed fists as the Psionic looked around. "Where did I go? What the fuck is this place??" she felt slightly irritated despite the absence of justification of it.  

"Emma." Brennan came closer to her, grabbing her arms. "Calm down. What happened to you?"

"Don't touch me! Don't you dare!" Emma struggled her way out and once she was on a decent distance from her 'husband' she was beginning to doubt even in him. The changes in her friends? Sanctuary? The days?? Everything? This was not her home. "I gotta get out of here," she muttered and rushed towards the exit before Brennan managed to grab her waist and pull her back. "Let go of me! Brennan! I told you! Let… go!" she struggled and almost succeeded with escaping once again but the Elemental was not letting her go this time. Instead, he pinned her down on the floor. 

"Emma!" he spoke calmly and harshly. "You are home. This _is Sanctuary. The only thing which I think has happened to you is that you might have lost a memory or two, _nothing_ more!"    _

Emma would have almost felt threatened if she didn't read the strange cloud of faith in this man's eyes. "No," she continued to struggle. "It's not home!" She was about to send a blast towards him when she unexpectedly felt weakened to even attempt that. This was strange; she had always managed to achieve this blast but right now she felt as if she didn't even have that power. Another attempt followed, due to the failure of this one, this time to try and alter his thoughts… but she only felt a slight headache. "Ah, shit…" she blinked several times. That hadn't worked either.

"Are you alright?" he asked when seeing her reaction.

"No, I'm not. This isn't my place! I need to get out of here!" 

"Emma, honey! Stop it!" This time the Elemental made sure she couldn't move an inch with her upper body as his hands took firm grips on her arms, gluing them next the sides of her body and his entire weight was concentrated on her as Brennan sat there. He waited until she couldn't do anything else but listen to him. "It's been nearly four years… I know it was difficult for you to accept what happened but…"

"What the hell are you talking about?" she hissed.

Brennan brought his head back. A sigh left him with a mix of sadness and relief that the Psionic had no remembrance of that day. "Never mind…" he said, "forget I mentioned it," and brought his face closer to hers. "I love you, ok? I love you more than my own life… Em, this is your home, as much as you can't remember anything about it, _THIS IS YOUR HOME_."  

"I'm sorry, Brennan, but I haven't seen any proof of that yet," she replied. 

Brennan observed her. The lightness of his eyes from the beginning slowly transferred into something more intense and darker as Emma's blues nearly drowned into that gaze. 

The Elemental then lowered his face completely as his lips touched hers. 

Emma moved her legs franticly, trying to remove him from her and escape but he was too heavy and his grip was overwhelmingly rigid. Air! She needed air! 

Then for two brief seconds after, she received that air before Brennan closed the space between their lips again. 

The exploration of the lips lasted several minutes before he finally broke it. What he noticed was astonishment in the Psionic's eyes. "Was that good proof?" he asked.  

Emma shook her head. She couldn't believe how warm and soft those lips felt and she was close to having a liking to that if only the desire of finding the truth and possibly the escape from this place wasn't stronger.

Brennan brought his lips closer to her and for a few brief moments Emma didn't let him in; she kept her lips tightly pressed together. 

Brennan's determination however overpowered her as she finally opened her mouth and welcomed him.   

********************

Almost like a little monkey, Mona jumped in Jesse's lap and somehow managed to run around and wrap her arms around his neck as she hung at his back.

"Ga… ok… Mon… you're…" Jesse grabbed her small arms gently and loosened them, freeing his neck. She would have nearly choked the Molecular. Bringing her in front of him, Jesse sat the small girl again on his lap. "That's better." He smiled while rubbing his neck with his right hand at the same time as he contributed a support for Mona to lean her back on with his left arm. "Do you know that Emma once told me that Mona looked more like me than John?"

"She did?"

"Yep! Nice to know, eh?"

"Yeah," Shalimar giggled, "very." She then looked over to them. "Well you have been practically like a father to her ever since John died…" a sudden drop of sentiment could be sensed in her voice. "And I'm happy…"

Jesse looked over at Shalimar. Taking Mona, he stood up and approached his friend. "Shal, it's ok…" he knew how upset the Feral could get when the mentioning of Mona's father continued more than once.

"Yeah," Shalimar showed a tamed smile as her eyes traveled slowly over to the little girl and then Jesse. "She still has a father figure to look up to," the gratitude was clear as daylight in her eyes, "and I'm happy that it's you."

Jesse placed his right hand on her arm and nodded. He then gave her a quick kiss on her lips. "Would it be weird if I said I loved you both to bits?"

"Hmm, I think so…" she joked and sent the two mutants into giggles. 

When they stopped, Jesse glanced over at the little girl in his arms. "She's gonna be one hell of a woman when she grows up," and then took in Shalimar's image with his gaze, "just like her mother."

"Alright, stop that!" Shalimar slapped his arm and giggled as this lightened her up. "I need to get something from downstairs before I put her to bed."

"I'll do it tonight."

"What, put her to sleep?" 

"Yeah."

"You're not gonna sing again, are you?" She raised an eyebrow.

"What's wrong with my signing??" he protested.

"Nothing, it's just that as Emma said to Brennan once: "I think I heard a crow 'singing' like that once," and started laughing.

Jesse wanted to give a sour smile but he had a hard time achieving that, so instead he only shook his head and headed towards Mona's small bed. 

Shalimar gave one last glance at the two people most important to her, and afterwards rushed with fast steps downstairs.

********************

Bringing in air after what had appeared to be more than simply few minutes of lip tasting, Brennan gazed down at the girl beneath him. "How about…" turning his voice into a whisper, "now?"

"I…" Emma licked her lips, "Bren, I'm sorry…" she sighed.

Releasing her arms, the Elemental slowly traveled with his hands up to her head, brushing her hair with his fingers. "You'll get it back, Em… you will."

Emma had now the chance to get away but she didn't use it. She would have been hideously lying to herself if she did not admit that this last kiss had penetrated to her approval zone. She could sense that he wanted to make love to her now but the hesitancy which he would receive from her stopped him. The respect towards her was on the highest in his mind. Ah, if she could only sense the feelings of hearts as well….

Brennan removed himself from the Psionic and stood up. Offering his arm, he then grabbed Emma's and pulled her up. 

"I'm gonna talk with Adam," she said. 

"Why?"

"I want to see what he found out."

"Alright," he agreed.

Without looking at the Elemental further, Emma then left the room and once she was in the corridor stopped for a moment to try and remember where the laboratory was. "Is he still there?" she wondered. When finally remembering, she rushed towards the glass-walled room.  

********************

When Emma arrived at the entrance she felt somewhat pleased to see the older man still there; stretching his arms and giving a big yawn, noting that he had intended to give himself a well deserved rest. "Adam." This made the scientist to turn around and face Emma. "What is it?" he asked her.

Emma stepped inside the laboratory. "Brennan told me about your… discovery with the… the…" she glanced over at the stone.

"Devin's gem?"

"Yes, the Devin's gem." Emma approached him. "What exactly did you find?" 

"Well, I'm still not quite certain of that but the gem seems to be transmitting some sorts of…" 

As she was listening, the clear sounds of his words were transforming into some blabbering which she couldn't make out. "Wait," Emma stopped him. "Sorry, I couldn't hear what you just said, could you please start again?"

"Sure," Adam agreed and began once more.

Emma had heard the word 'sure' loud and clear but everything else that left the scientist's mouth was converted into some smudgy sounds but this time they were accompanied by quiet sounds or ringing. "Damn it," she thought. She could see Adam but she could not hear him well and for some strange reason that had affected her power to try and sense anything more than the sign of tiredness which was present in his mind. She shook her head, hoping for the sound to change… it did not work. The noise started getting louder. 

"Wait!" she shouted having the fear that Adam wouldn't have heard her if she had said the word more quietly.  

Adam stopped immediately. "Emma, what's wrong?" his sudden concern caused him to approach Emma. 

The redhead looked at him. She heard that question clearly. "Nothing…I … um… sorry, could you…?" 

"Try again?"

"Yeah," Emma questioned herself whether her mind had been messing with her to that extend that she wasn't fully focused on Adam's explanation, a reason to why she decided to ask him again.

"Why did you scream like that?" he asked.

"I had trouble understanding what you were saying."

"I see… Emma, could you lie down on the chair? I think another check up is in order."

"No," Emma shook her head. "I'm alright, could you just explain to me about the gem… again?"

"I will, but firstly I want to see if something else has happened to you in the mean time."

"I feel fine."

"I'm sure, but please…" and pointed towards the chair. 

Emma took a glimpse of the object. "Orange?" The entire chair had been orange. "When did the color change?" she asked while keeping her eyes on the object. 

Adam sent her a disturbing look. "It was orange before, Emma. It had been orange ever since it was built."

Emma now glared back at Adam. "When I came here before it was lime, not orange!"

"No, it was orange; perhaps you were just overtaken by your earlier confusion to notice it."

"Hmm… I'm heaving serious doubts about that." She crossed her arms, looking now at the chair. But it was true; she didn't pay particular attention to the color of the chair when she first arrived here. But orange… it isn't exactly an unnoticeable color.  

"Now, please lie down." 

Emma glanced over at Adam. "Tell me about the gem again," she insisted; the trust towards this place and even her friends was beginning to fade. 

Adam was looking strangely back at her with nothing but silence.  

"Tell me about it," she asked once more.

"Alright, but after that I'm giving you a scan," he said.

"Fine," her voice was reaching the level of coldness. 

"For the third time, as I said, I think that the gem is…"

But once more his words became unclear. Even though Adam was talking normally, it did not register the same with Emma. Sending a confused gaze to the blue stone, she wondered if it really had an effect on her. "Stop, stop…" she shook her head and returning her eyes to Adam. "What's going on??" she wondered inside. 

"You had trouble understanding me again?" he asked.

Emma nodded. The clarity of his words returned.

Adam sighed. "Can I give you a scan now?"

"Yeah," Emma agreed and gradually walked over to the orange chair and lied down. Closing her eyes, she let the scanning begin. 

Several minutes later, Emma turned her head to her right and awaited an answer. "Well…?"

Adam was feeling puzzled. "I don't understand… it doesn't show anything unusual."

Emma sat up. "Are you certain?"

"Have a look," he offered.  

Emma touched the floor and walked over to the monitor. Observing the contents on the screen, she too could not detect anything abnormal. Sending a look to the blue stone, Emma then walked over to it. She searched with her eyes for a pair of gloves until she finally found two green ones on the next table. Taking them, Emma put the gloves on and opened the cube. But the moment that she uncovered the gem, the Psionic felt a sharp sting in her head. "Ouch!" shutting her eyes, Emma touched her head. Two seconds later the pain had fortunately disappeared. Opening her eyes, feeling better, she took a deep breath and brought her hands towards the gem. Taking it finally, she observed it from each angle while spinning it slowly in her hands. The only thing that she could detect about it was that this Devin's gem was nothing more than a dead stone. If it did affect her, she certainly couldn't feel anything strange while it was in her hands. Wearing the gloves this time, her hands were safe. So it burned when bare skin would touch it… some strange earth element perhaps. Anything else? She looked. Nothing….

She returned the stone. Closing the cube, Emma took off her gloves. Turning around, she faced Adam again. "There doesn't seem to be anything strange about it," she told him.

"Are you certain of it?"

"Yes, I didn't feel anything from it. I don't know, except for its scorching characteristic, it doesn't show any other unusual signs." 

"Perhaps it does but you can not feel it at this moment."

"No… I don't think so; I think I'm able of detecting _those changes."_

"Strange… well, go to bed, I'm going to stay a while… maybe I can find something…"

"Ok, but…"

"I'm not wrong about my conclusion. There has to be something…"

Emma looked at him and then turned around. "Alright, in that case…" and walked out of the laboratory. 

Climbing the stairs Emma felt confused at why she couldn't hear what Adam was telling her about the gem and why when she held it in her hands she couldn't feel anything that the stone might have sent to her… if it could do such a thing. "Damn it…" she felt slightly afraid by this. "What's happening?"

********************

When she reached the third floor, the Psionic ran into Shalimar who had been returning to her own room. 

"Going to bed?" the Feral asked her.

"I don't know… how about you?" 

"Soon, I think. How do you feel?"

"Not much different from before. Sure would be good to somehow… err, zap my way out of here."

"You don't like it here?"

"Um… Shal, I already told you…"

"Yes, I know… this isn't Sanctuary and so on." 

Emma didn't say anything.

"But Emma…" Shalimar came closer to her. "I know I shouldn't mention this… until you do get all of your memory back, I know that's hard for you but my advice is not to shut Brennan out."

Emma tilted her head. "What makes you say that? I mean why do you think that I would?"

"Well I don't but… ah it's probably me thinking about John too much lately," the Feral glanced at her hands. When she looked up at Emma, the Psionic could see the melancholy in Shalimar's eyes, something she hadn't been accustomed to seeing in this woman. 

"I wanted to …" Emma had thoughts of mentioning about her intention to ask the Feral about her man, but she switched to something else. "I'm sorry I don't remember him."

Shalimar shrugged. "He was my life-line, Emma…" the melancholy had now reached her voice. 

"Yes, I can imagine."

"Even if you don't remember it now, I'm sure you can feel it. Just… be with him, ok? Be with Brennan. I know how much you two love each other…" Shalimar shook her head as she felt slightly 'dorky' about starting this, perhaps, depressing conversation but it came naturally to her ever since John had died. "And when I remember about that incident nearly four years ago…" she shrugged, "don't take him for granted, ok? Please, don't shut him out. I sometimes did that and… never got the change to… fix it."

"I-I wont… I would never do that…" she understood that Shalimar and John had something special after all. "What incident though?" Emma asked.

"When he gave up most of his power… for you?"

Emma's eyes narrowed as her eye brows rose. "What happened?"

Shalimar hesitated. "Serum…"

"Who's he?"

"Some fucked up lunatic… he… he took you hostage and threatened to kill you unless… well he wanted to inject some drug or whatever into Brennan's blood that would alter his mutation… removing him of his ability to produce electricity… well, high voltages at least."  

"But why? I mean couldn't you save me… someone?"

Shalimar shook her head.

"W-what happened afterwards?"  

"Serum had his way, you were after that rescued and he disappeared until a year ago when one of the Genomex employees killed him… I think." 

This revelation sent an electrifying river through her organism. "Bren…" she looked around.

"It's a great sacrifice… so…"

"Yes, I know…" Emma embraced Shalimar tightly, "thank you for telling me," she said.

"Mm."

Emma then released her friend. "How is Mona?"

"She should be sleeping by now. I should go check... I hope Jesse's singing didn't cry her to sleep." The Feral managed to let out a weak giggle as she returned to her room. 

Emma watched her leave. She truly was beginning to lose trust in these people but that story touched her; Brennan was that kind of a person… and particularly if love was in play. "God…" she sighed and walked over to the room where Brennan was. 

********************

The Elemental turned his face towards the room entrance. "Hey, how did it go?" he asked when noticing the Psionic standing there; the artificial light had beautifully separated his tall figure from the rest of the darkened room. 

Emma slowly approached him until she stood in front of him. "Did you really do that?" she asked him.

"What's that?"

"Give up so much of your powers… for me?"

Brennan swallowed once. "Did that come back to you?" his voice nearly a fragile whisper was heard.

"No, Shalimar told me. You really did that…"

"I couldn't let you die," he said.

The sensitivity and concern were so intense in this man that Emma let herself be engrossed by these feelings. "You love me that much?"

"Well, we are married, aren't we…"

Emma watched his deep brown eyes. If this was a dream she ought to at least get the most of it. Lifting herself up Emma touched his lips with hers. Feeling the sweet taste of them, she then wrapped her arms tightly around his neck, not letting him go; her body sensing the movement of his arms until they were safely wrapped around her small waist. 

Pressing her firmly to him, the Elemental felt happy that this young woman was accepting him again; he missed her warmth.

********************

Finally separating their lips, Emma looked at him. "Can you still make some electricity?

"Well I think I have enough to start a car… nothing more than that." A smile crept on his face.

Emma brushed her hand on his cheek. "Forgive me," she said.

"Why? It wasn't your fault."

"Well, if I didn't let my self get captured like that, you wouldn't…" Despite not possessing the knowledge that she had been there, Emma couldn't be completely cold towards this.

"Em," placing his thumb on her lips, Brennan stooped her from any further talking. "It's over; it happened… if I hadn't done that, I wouldn't be holding you like this now."

Emma hugged him tightly. This _was_ like Brennan; even though he never demonstrated it, she knew that he would go this far for that someone he cared for far greatly than himself. She wanted to say that she loved him… she did care about him, but the Psionic wasn't in love with him. It didn't feel right and it didn't seem like her place. 

Placing her head back so she would look at him again, Emma then felt another tiny headache. "Ah…" she closed her eyes.

"What's wrong?" Brennan loosened his embrace.

"Just a small…" she opened her eyes, "headache…" but the pain kicked in again, causing her to close the eyes once more.

While the darkness surrounded her, Emma suddenly heard, what appeared to be a waterfall, some birds and the darkness was beginning to slowly get brighter; her arms were no longer resting on someone's shoulders, instead her left arm felt free and loose while her left one was in someone else's hand. Frantically opening her eyes, Emma found herself standing on a stony edge with what she could tell were trees on the other side of a huge hole in front of her; adjusting her blues to the sudden sunshine she then finally saw the waterfall just a few meters away from her, pouring down into the hole where she saw deep blue water. It appeared relatively calm except for the area at where the waterfall flowed into. 

Turning her head to her left, Emma saw Jesse's face, his eyes twinkling as a huge grin decorated his face. "Ready?" he asked her, as the hot sun was splashing over them… that's where the light was coming from earlier. 

"What?" Emma felt baffled but she did not get an answer when the young man pulled her forward with him and down into the hole where the sea water was. 

"Waaaaaaaaaaaiiit!!!" Emma screamed but splash! ... too late. Both landed into the salty water.     

********************


	5. chapter 5

********************

The moment she had reached the surface, Emma took in as much air as her lungs could support. Franticly searching with her gaze, she found herself swimming in this watery surrounding. Fanning out in a circle, glancing behind her and everywhere else, Emma began looking for Jesse. "Where is he? Where _am I??" she wondered. Did she really see him? Everything had happened so quickly. "How did I get here?" She was holding Brennan only a few minutes ago and now she was floating in water._

A moment after, someone burst onto the surface from behind Emma, causing her to swim quickly forward as this sudden move had scared her. Turning around, she then noticed the young man. She didn't imagine it, it really had been Jesse with… long hair? Braids?? 

"Wow, you're a quick learner," removing the drops of the water from his nose, a chuckle was released. His voice however sounded harsher than Emma had known of. 

"Huh?"

"But then, you gotta go to extremes to teach someone to swim. It usually works."

 "Swimming?" Emma looked around. "Um, w-where exactly are… we?" she asked with a deeply low voice and felt a tiny amount of salty water entering her mouth as the lower part her head sunk itself slightly. Spitting it out, it had been then that Emma had also felt her hair not giving out as much weight as usual when she would dip it into water. Touching the back of her head, Emma noticed that her long hair had disappeared; she had short hair instead. "Where's my hair? What the hell happened to it?" she panicked inside.

"So, how does it feel?" His voice returned Emma's attention to the young man swimming next to her.

"Feels what?"

"To know how to swim!"

"Ah…um… it feels great," Emma nodded and forced a smile.

"Great, you wanna stick around here for a while longer, Danni or get back to the shore?"

"Danni?"

"Well?"

"Why did you call me Danni?"

"That is your name, isn't it? Or have you been lying to us all these years," he kidded.

"Argh…" Emma took another glimpse of her surroundings. "Back to shore captain," she replied.

"Let's go then mate!" he said and started swimming away from her.

"What happened?" Emma whispered giving a glance towards the waterfall before she swam after the young man. 

Once they reached the yellow shore, Jesse was the first to step on the ground. Emma could not let it be unnoticed at how well this man was built; water dripping from his hair and body in such a way that it felt almost inviting; this strangely had reminded her of that hot Wednesday, last summer when she saw Brennan coming out of the ocean after a long swim, only much better. Stepping out of the water, Emma noticed an empty and small beach; feeling the hot sand beneath her bare feet, she looked down and noticed a yellow bikini on her with tiny black butterflies. Going down, her eyes then stopped on a rather large black tattoo of a snake wrapped around a small blue stone; the picture, its theme or more correctly its size widened Emma's eyes as her fingers brushed coarsely on the hip where it was drawn. "How did that get there?" 

"Danni, you coming?" Jesse's voice interrupted her.

"Ah?" Emma looked up at him. "Where?"

"Back, home?"

"Err, yeah," she rubbed the tattoo two more times before she continued walking. 

This had appeared to be a secluded little spot, shielded by the huge gray rocks with only small low passages that were leading to the 'outside'. Emma's blue eyes briefly concentrated on Jesse's figure in front of her when she suddenly stopped. She couldn't sense anything from him; nothing was reaching her. "This is not right," Emma thought. "Why can't I get anything??" It hadn't been only the nothingness which she was experiencing from him but she herself had felt empty… she felt normal. Now she panicked; the hair, the tattoo, the absence of sensing his feelings? 

For a moment she wanted to ask Jesse who he really was but held it back. One thing was clear to Emma: she had been thrown in another reality. But why couldn't she read anything?   

Noticing that Emma wasn't following him, the young man turned around. "Danni?" he called her.

"Yuck, I hate that name already," she cringed. 

Going towards her, Jesse took her hand and continued walking. "The fall wasn't too much for you was it?" he laughed.

Emma turned her head towards him. Not only did he look different, he acted different. Why did that behavior remind her incredibly of… "Ah, no," she shook her head. "Not Brennan! 

"Actually, it was. Too high, Jesse!" she told him.

"Who?" the blond gave her a high look.

"Jesse?" 

He stopped. "You didn't hit a rock down there did you?"

"W-well no."

"Alright, good," he nodded. 

"Why did you pick such a huge height, anyway?" as Emma looked into his blue eyes, she was unconsciously drawn to the similarities that this man possessed with Brennan.

"I told you, extreme situations always bring the best out of you," and winked. 

Butterflies in the belly had appeared – if Emma had wanted to know how it felt like, this was giving her a clear feel. "Oh you gotta be kidding!" her inside voice complained, "You still don't even know where you are!"

Emma then looked down at her tattoo, "Um, I want to ask you about th-…" she didn't get to finish her sentence when they heard the sound a helicopter approaching them.

Diverting their gaze to the sky both saw the flying red machine. "Shit, they found us!" Jesse said with irritation. "Go!" he ordered Emma, not removing his gaze.

"Where?" Emma asked as the helicopter was slowly descending.

"Home! Go!" He then turned toward her with angry determination in his eyes. 

"Who are they??" she wanted to know.

"Some group that wants to kill us?"

"Why??"

"For their damn experiments, Danni! You really did hit a rock down there. Go already!" this time his tone had appeared worse than simply angry.

"O-ok!" she agreed and started running towards the opening in the huge gray rocks.

'Jerry! Finally to find you here.' Emma heard a loud voice from behind her.

"Haven't you given up after seven years?" Jesse responded.

The other person laughed. "Not when I have a real goldmine. You are one of the few remaining humans. Imagine how much you would cost on the black market," he said and soon Emma heard a single bullet being fired.

Stopping immediately, Emma spun around just in front of the opening and saw Jesse fall on the ground. 

"No!!" she screamed and sprung towards the helicopter as two of the assassins, dressed in black uniforms were picking up Jesse's body. 

Another man appeared from the helicopter and ran towards her, grabbing Emma. "Two in one day! Perfect!" 

A tall, bearded man approached the captured girl. His red eyes glowed strangely at her. "A female? Oh this is even better." As he measured her with his eyes, his face changed when they stopped on her hip. A growl was heard. "Let her go," he told the accomplice.

"Why?"

"She has that sign. We can't take her. Let her go."

The man holding her took a glimpse of Emma's tattoo and afterwards released her immediately. 

Once she felt free, Emma wanted to run over to the helicopter; she needed to save Jesse. But one of the men pulled out a gun and fired at her. "Uh," Emma instantly felt tiredness a second after the initial sting of what by now had appeared to be sleeping dart. Everything before her began to be covered by darkness that was sucking out the light as she fell on the sand. 

Just then the familiar headache appeared, forcing her eyelids to close before her eyes, ceasing her intended action. 

********************

The brightness of the sun beyond those thin layers of skin, which perhaps shielded her blues, had faded. She now felt a soft surface of a pillow beneath her head. "Mmm…" she sounded and opened her eyes. Everything was dark, nothing to be seen. "I must be back home," a momentary feeling of relief had approached her when Emma heard a sudden hard knock on the door. The knock was repeated several times with a fast tempo. "Come on Rosaline, it's nearly noon!" a woman's voice was heard behind the door. Emma rapidly sat up on the bed, but was held back by that sudden shock from leaving the place. 

Then the door burst open and two female figures, that Emma could make out thanks to the lighting from the opened doors, rushed inside and towards the windows on the left side of the bed, removing the dark purple and noticably heavy drapes. 

"You always over do it with you nap, Rosey!" A younger woman with red hair curled up in a bun with a gray dress on, in a style of the 1930's, turned around and threw off the bed sheet from Emma, uncovering a long white nightgown. 

"How…wha-?" Emma shielded herself with her hand from the sudden rays of the sun, bursting into the now light room. The last fresh piece of memory in her mind was her being put to sleep on that yellow beach while someone took Jesse away. Why was she here now?  

"Frederic is going to be here in less than an hour! You're not even packed!" The other woman with black loose hair and wearing a man's shirt and pants rushed over to the dressing cabinet, beginning to collect the acsessories.

Emma didn't get the chance to say anything as the redhead grabbed her out of the bed, put a white long skirt and shirt on the Psionic and the other woman shoved the now full suitcase in her hand. "Let's go! You're going to be late!" the black-haired pushed Emma forward from behind while the redhead grabbed Emma's free hand and pulled her forward and out of the room. 

"Wait, where am…" the Psionic was ready to ask when she noticed a tall young gentleman with a tilted black hat on and black suit was standing in the other room, looking toward the cloudy outside. 

The three women stopped. 

"Ah, you're here! Much earlier than we expected!" the redhead said as she let go of Emma. 

The moment the man turned around, Emma was left nearly speachless. His face, his posture - it was Brennan! "Shit…" she muttered having to admit that seeing him like this, almost sporting the tall, dark myserious, alright not stranger, but close enough, had taken her by a pleasant surprsie. She figured she must've been tthrown this time in the 30's of the previous century. 

The man smiled, the appearing joy on his face had obviously been caused by the presence of Emma. 

"I couldn't wait," he replied and walked over to the Psionic. "Are you ready?" he asked, taking her hand. 

"Where?" Emma stared back at him.

"Out of here," he responded and took her suitcase. 

Her breath being two seconds stolen by the appearance of this man, she was then turned around by the two other girls who were by now in tears. 

"I'm going to miss you so much Rosey!" Emily, the redhead hugged her tightly. "Please write, alright?"

"I-I will," Emma nodded and after she was released from Emily's hug the other woman, Kristy, took her own turn, nearly taking the air out of the Psionic with her almost manly hug. 

"Don't forget about us Roselane! You're the only person ever that has made me cry so sissy-like, like now!" 

"I won't." Emma responded and when giving the two women one last look, felt Frederic's hand take hers before she was gently pulled away from them. 

"Let's go before they see us," his whispers reached her ears, causing Emma to look at the this man, Frederic who was leading her toward the back entereance of the house. Running through a small corridor, they reached the kitchen which appeared to be empty and separated from the back garden by two doors. 

Once they were outside, a black car in that periodic style, waited. Taking her suitcase, Frederic placed it in the back and then led Emma to her seat before he took his own. Starting the engine they soon drove off and away from the, what now Emma could tell as she looked behind her, mansion. She wanted to say something now, but she felt numb out of nowhere, letting herself being covered by millions of questions about this new place. 

On the way she saw a farm, a couple of houses near the road and after that every appeared deserted. Also glancing over at Frederic's face and his similar features of Brennan's face made her feel eased when instead she should have been alarmed. She saw him taking her hand and holding it.

They continued driving for what seemed like half an hour on a lonely country road, when after a while, Frederic pulled the car over by a huge tree, its branches sadly lowered so far down that they nearly covered the wheacle. Turning off the engine, the tall man took off his hat and turned toward the woman sitting next to him, a satisfied smile on his face. 

Taking her face, he kissed her passionately leaving Emma to beg for air. Once she received it, another kiss followed. 

Later, Frederic kissed her cheek and leaned back on his seat. "We finally did it, Rosey. We finally got away," he said, diverting his gaze in front of him. 

Emma watched him. She felt love and relief in him. What freaked her out more was that she somehow felt those same feelings inside herself. "From?" she had to ask.

Frederic looked back at her and chuckled. "Everything that held us back," he leaned forward with his arm draped behind Emma. "We can now go to Europe and start our lives like was wanted to," and kissed her. She knew something was given up here. 

"We'll save money and buld our own fortune, we don't need theirs," she said but this had gotten out without her intention, "Where did that come from?" she wondered.

"Exactly, baby." He agreed. "And this will help us on our way," and pulled out a small blue stone from his pocket. 

Emma recognized it, she didn't know from where but that stone had looked incredibly familiar to her. "Wow." 

"I know," he smiled before taking her hand and placing the stone there.

"Where did you get this from?" she asked.

"My father had it; he was always very protective of this thing, partly because it's worth a lot of money." 

"And the other part?" Emma glanced at him.

Frederic shrugged. "I don't know."

Emma bit her lip, this scenario reminded her of one of those stories where two rich kids fall in love, but their families had not been approving of their relationship, something like a more moden Romeo and Julia thing but without the suicides at the end. Two people so much in love that they give up everything to be together, "Oh god, if this is the case…" Emma cringed, giving the stone back to him.

Taking a small black box, Frederic placed the stone inside and then closed it before putting it in one of the bags. His dark brown eyes then concentrated on her. The shadows flickering on his face from the branches gave him more of a surreal feeling; and he smelled so tempting.  "Are you happy?" he asked her.

Looking at him Emma, as much as she felt slightly or more confused, she could not hold back the feeling that she was taken by the way this man looked, by the same face, same features as Brennan. The only difference: the clothes and absence of mutated genes. 

"Yes, of course… Fred."

The man smilled and kissed her again but this time longer. Emma was now certain this really was that case: they were those two rich kids. 

When Frederic pulled back, Emma licked her lips and swallowed; she felt curious. "Fred, can you tell me… I always like hearing this story… how we met?" She had already played an amnesia stricken girl, so she decided to take a different approach with her questions.

Brushing his thumb on her neck, his eyes watched her softly: "Robin Serveson had prepared a party with his wife Madeleine for their two year anniversary. My father had threatened to disown me for the millionth time if I hadn't come to choose a nice bride."

"Something done frequently in 18th or 17th century," this had appeared amusing to Emma and feeling a small burden gone from her shoulders as she felt her telempathic ability return. 

"Yes. We arrived there and then I felt my world change in a second. I saw you in that long beautiful white dress standing along those stairs, your tamed black hair and these blue eyes like two little stars." Frederic moved his hand slowly up and near her eyes.  

Emma listened attentively to his words which appeared gentle and with the identical clear voice that Brennan had and to her Frederic appeared to be enjoying in the telling of this story.  

"I greeted you and we began to talk. I felt sorry for you, having your parents choose a husband, a man you barely liked. Someone your parents, _especially your mother approved of much more than me… because he simply happened to have more money. That's probably why your parents hate me; I ruined a perfect future for their daughter."_

"I can not imagine why with such a man," Emma thought but hurriedly pulled that sentence away. "And it has been…" she instead started a sentence with hope that he would finish it.

"Four months." There was a pause. "Only Emily and Kristy know about this, right?" he asked with a momentary concern in his voice.

"Yes. How about you?"

"Only my mother." He sighed, appearing somewhat sad for leaving her. "I'm going to ask her to live with us once we have settled down."

"Wonderful," Emma smiled.  "And… now… it'll be over?"

"With everything behind? Yes. It'll be over once we step on European land," he replied and brought his face closer before giving Emma another kiss.  

She grew fond of the kiss. This had been the third different time she had managed to taste them and in each time the taste and style was the same: beautiful. Emma's heart responded in a way that it skipped a beat or two.

But the headache kicked in again, spoiling the moment as she parted their lips and once more closed her eyes. 

********************

A moment later, she felt the lips again. But something was different this time. 

Opening her eyes, she saw another woman! Quickly pushing her away, Emma's heart beat inscreased as she stared with astonishment at the brunette. Emma found herself in what looked like a toilet in a nightclub with blue lights. 

"Hey, what is it?" The woman, obviously displeased by this rough action, stared back at Emma.

"I can't," Emma said but she was stunned by what she heard, as the sound of the voice wasn't hers; it wasn't even female!

The woman gave a dismissive laughter and approached Emma. "Oh come on tiger," she said with a seductive tone and was about to give a kiss when Emma pushed her away once more. This time it truly didn't please the other person. "Hey, you were all over me a moment ago at the bar and now you can't??" she sounded annoyed.

"Well, I…" the voice again. Emma touched her throat; she felt an Adam's apple. Looking down at her clothing she noticed a man's lower part of a body in black pants and shoes that appeared spotless and what Emma feared the most - a crotch. "Ah shit," she thought and looked up to face the woman. "I can't," she shook her head. 

"Yes, you can. Let's go to my place."

"No, I gotta get out of here and not with you." Emma recognized that voice… it was Brennan's! 

The woman now felt angry. "You bastard! And I ditched my man tonight because of you!" and slapped Emma before storming out of room. 

"That hurt… ah…" When left alone and with a burning feeling on her cheek, Emma looked at the male hands in front of her eyes; the rings, even two strange bracelets. "Please tell me this is still a nightmare!" she pleaded inside. Lowering the hands down she then went over to one of the mirrors. What she saw in the bluish reflection was something she did not wish to see. She was looking at Brennan's face. "This can't be," she sqeaked, although with Brennan's voice that sounded quite creepy. "I'm not Brennan. Gawd! Grose!"

Touching his face, Emma felt the smooth skin. Closing his eyes briefly, letting his head hang down, she exhaled. "Why, a guy?" she whispered. "Why, Brennan??" Lifting the head again, Emma opened the brown eyes.  

After staring at the face for several more minutes, Emma took a few steps back. Hearing the flushing of a toilet, she turned around and saw a curvy woman with brown hair exit the middle cubicle. The woman cheked Emma up before she quickly exited the toilet. At least she wasn't in the men's toilet; _that_ would've turned out to be really tricky. But any furhter thinking she wanted to make was interrupted when a group of six females entered the toilet. Some barely payed attention to the man in here, while others liked what they were seeing from the moment they spotted him. Emma on the other hand didn't as she quickly exited the toilet without saying anything and reached a darker corridor filled with young people; some talking, others making out; a third group just passing by. 

"Damn, is this crotch unocomfortable!" she compliained inside.

Going to her left, Emma soon exited the corridor and found herself in the main area, swirming with people; loud psychodelic music and flashing rays of light with different color ready to leave you blinded for a week. "Don't tell me he actually goes here!" she thought. 

"Bren!" she suddenly heard a familiar voice, quite surpringsly as well, considering the high volume of a music that you would rather be dead than to stay and listen to, probably because it wasn't in Emma's taste. 

Looking to her left, Emma saw a redhead coming her way. She felt astonished when seeing the girl's face. It was herself. Emma saw herself approaching her. "Where were you? I wanna get out of this shithole!" she complained.

"Yeah, so do I," Emma thought. But she could not avoid herself from staring at the woman in front of her. The Psionic felt confused by this and overwhelmed at the same time. "I really don't look so much like a dork, do I?" she amused herself with that thought and moved her lips.  

**[**_Author's note: For there to be no more confusion and also not to be mixed with her otherself I will be refering to Emma as Brennan in this part.**] **_

"What?" Emma asked by the look on Brennan's face. 

"I… gosh… I…" 

"Are we going or not?"

"Yeah…um, err, Ok, let's go," he then said and spread his arm towards the direction of what he had hoped was the exit.

When they exited the loud nightclub, Brennan felt surprised at how he could not sense anything from Emma or she from him. A good explanation had been that Brennan was not a Telempath but the puzzlement remained for the dissability from Emma's part. Brennan took Emma's hands and stooped her. 

"What?" Emma looked at him.

"Cant you get anything unusual from me?" he asked looking deeply into her eyes, hoping for a positive answer.

"Apart from your jackass mind? nope." Emma responded.

Brennan wanted to smile. This remark really sounded like herself. But why couldn't she read anything? Was there a wall in Brennan's mind, blocking her? "Ok," he responded and let go of her hands. "Gosh, I really have gentle hands," Brennan thought after feeling Emma's. He also took notice to the way he walked because ever since Emma came in there, inside him, he could've sworn he might've given out signs of a huge female presence in him. "That really would've hurt Bren's reputation," Brennan thought and luckily having a good knowledge of his walk, tried to his best abilites to imitate it, which speaking fairly, wasn't bad. "Hands in pockets, Emma, hands in pockets!" he reminded himself and shoved his hands in the pockets of his pants. 

They barely walked for five minutes when Emma stopped. 

"Emma?" Brennan did the same as he looked over to her.

Looking down the redhead sighed and hesitated for a while, before she looked up at the Elemental. "Bren, about that night…"

"Which one?"

"Two nights ago. It wasn't me talking, it was the alcohol."

Brennan lifted an eyebrow. This was not like himself, but then again he wasn't like himself. "What did you say?"

Emma looked up, "That I…" she shrugged, "had feelings for you… I didn't mean it like, you know, _romantic_ ones, just, normal, friend like." 

Brennan smiled. "Well," he thought, "where did I go this time?" and nervously placed his hand on her shoulder. "You didn't mean it in a romantic way?" he asked, "Sure of it?"

Emma nodded and swallowed. But Brennan knew her, because she was the Emma inside of him as well. "I believe you, Emma. Now… let's go home," and put her arms around the woman despite the oddness of hugging yourself.

"You're really good to me, Bren."

"Yes, he is…" Brennan thought when another headache kicked in, shutting his eyes. "Damn it!"

********************

"Ah, now where am I?" Emma asked herself while her eyes had remained closed. "Just please don't let me be a guy again." 

She suddenly felt deep aching inside her, she felt grief. Opening her eyes, the Psionic noticed a long black veil in front of her blues. Beyond that she saw a marble grave. The hollow wind blew sadly across her ears moving the veil gently towards her lips. Removing the black piece, Emma searched the new surrounding and found that she was kneeling down in a graveyard. The grief that she felt was strongly pressing on her heart. Placing her hand on her chest, she felt large tears were going to follow. Blinking twice for her pain to settle, she then saw the depressing and dark atmosphere of this place where all the graves appeared clean and well cared after but the feeling was eerily. If there had been a more perfect setting for a vampire movie, this had to be it; with all that it was missing was fog.  

Looking up, she noticed how the dark and heavy clouds were slowly gathering. It was going to rain soon. Lowering her head, Emma's eyes fell on the marble grave in front of which she kneeled down earlier. Kneeling down once more, she saw a few black leaves that had stuck on the front of the stone, blown away by the wind. Quickly removing them, Emma then read the name on the stone but her fingers trembling as she did so. "Brennan Mul-…" She couldn't read the rest of it because the shock struck her immediately. Opening her mouth widely, Emma's arms collapsed helplessly on her lap as she slowly sat on her feet. "No," she shook her head, "it's not…" the tears were now approaching. This was why she had felt and was still feeling the pain in her heart. "It's not you, it can't be you!" Rubbing the stone with her hands as is she wanted to remove the letters. "Bren, how…" the tears were now released. "God!" She began scratching the stone. "It's a dream! Just like everything else I've been through in this journey. It's not real. You're not dead!" Sobbing, she wiped the tears from her eyes, only to be greeted by more. She continued scratching the marble surface until her fingers began to ache. If all this was not real, then the Psionic was thrusting her self too much into it. When her hands finally stopped, she brought them closer to her face to give it cover. "It's not true, it's not real! Everything is fake! Everything is unreal! Damn it! Why do I feel this fucking pain?!"    

"Emma?" a calm female voice was heard behind her. 

Swiftly turning her head, the Psionic noticed Shalimar standing there in a black leather cat suit and black buts; her long blond hair being carried more aggressively by the wind; her face appeared serene. 

"Shal, what…" Emma sprung on her feet and quickly approached the young blond. "…is happening here? Why is Brennan's name on that grave??"  

"Why do you think it is there?" her voice calm and quiet.

"It can't be him, Shal. He's not dead! He can't be!"

Shalimar nodded. "It's been two weeks, Emma. He is gone, you have to accept it."

"But how did he die? What, what happened to him??"

The Feral gazed strangely at Emma. "He was killed."

"By whom??" she asked, her blues covered entirely by the colorless tears.

"We never found out. Let's go home, Emma, you've been here for over two hours now." 

Emma spun her head towards the stone. "He can't be gone, Shal," she approached the grave. Looking at it, it was just then that she noticed the engraving with tiny letters on the bottom of the grave, next to the three fresh magnolias. 

"_My life and love – Emma. _Always with me in life and death_."_

Emma slowly shook head. "How did this happen? Bren…" she wanted to kneel down once more but felt Shalimar's hands on her arms, before the Feral pulled her way. "No!" Emma struggled. "I need to stay more! No! Let me go!" 

Shalimar had managed to drag the Psionic away from the grave but Emma freed herself and ran towards the grave. She wanted to touch it once more before Shalimar grabbed her arms again. "No, I gotta know! Shalimar! Please!" she screamed with tears in her eyes until the familiar pain in her head had surfaced once more. "No! No, not… now…no," her voice and words became weaker as the pain increased, forcing Emma to fall into still darkness for a moment.    

********************

"Ah…" Touching her head, Emma opened her eyes again and found herself sitting on the floor of an empty restaurant. The previous pain in her heart had now disappeared; the tears were no longer there. "It was a dream, wasn't it…? He didn't die…" she had hoped. "Where in hell am I now?" she wondered and noticed a sleeveless red long sparkling dress on her body. 

.

"Miss Delauro. Finally." Emma looked towards the direction of the source of this and found Brennan sitting on the table with a white cloth on, set in the middle of the room.

"Bren, is that… you??" she jumped and almost ran towards him when she suddenly stopped. It didn't feel like him. "Who are you? Where am I this time?" 

The Brennan double smiled. "Sit down, Emma," he said.

"Who are you?" Emma was wary to the invitation as she had sensed something strange in this man.

"Please," he spoke calmly, offering his hand to her as he stood up.

She hesitated. "What's happening?" Emma asked herself. "Where am I?"

Looking around, Emma saw that the place appeared like a normal restaurant but without any costumers. Returning her eyes to Brennan, or the man disguising himself like Brennan, she sensed that he was going to help her in some way, unlike the other people who she came across which lacked of that opportunity. 

Emma took a deep breath and accepted his offer seeing as there was no other alternative at her disposal. "Do you know what's happening here?" she asked him.

His brown eyes sparkled as he never once removed his smile. "Probably."

"Who are you?"

The man leaned back and took the menu in his hands. "Let us order something and I will tell you everything you need to know."        

Her cautious behavior was still present but for some reason Emma did feel hungry. Taking the other menu, the Psionic opened it up and started searching as to what was on offer. 

********************

There was an idea to make each of these stories longer, but there was doubt of whether you would be interested in reading entire histories of them so they were cut. Have fun and thank you for the reviews. :o)


	6. chapter 6

********************

When two plates of soup were in front of them, Emma looked at the man. "Can we start now?" she asked.

"Have something to eat first," he responded.

"Well curiosity just happens to be stronger than me feeling hungry right now."

"Why are you so inpatient?"

"Because I just passed through what was like five different realities and I have absolutely no idea what is happening!"

"Alright, where were you?" he asked her calmly.

"Ah…um… some place that looked like sanctuary only weirder, then on some beach by a waterfall… somewhere that appeared to be in the past… then Brennan!... and then of course in a cemetery."

"And do you remember who was there?"

"Yes."

"And…"

"Wait, can you tell me who you are first?" she asked.

"Who would you want me to be?" Brennan smiled.

"Excuse me?"

Brennan then quickly morphed into Shalimar. "Alright… is this better?" she asked Emma.

"How did you do that? Who the hell are you??" this was confusing the Psionic even more, everything so far had only raised questions for her.

"You know those internal dialogues everyone has?"

"Yeah."

"Well, I happen to be one of those voices."

"You're one of the voices in my mind…" Emma did not sound impressed.

Shalimar nodded and leaned her chin on her hand.

Emma laughed. "You're kidding, right?"

"Nope."

"No, seriously, this is just another reality, right?"

"Well sort of, but not like the others you experienced."

Emma glanced around the empty restaurant. "Ok…" she responded with a doubtful tone, "right… and is this place real?"

"Yes, it is."

"What kind of a place is it?"

"Um, call it 'stuck between times'."

Emma gave Shalimar a questioning look and then quickly stood up, intending to run towards the exit.

"If you're intending on going out… which you are, you can't."

Emma stopped and turned around. "Why's that?"

"Because this is only a meeting place, not an expedition like the other five times." 

Shalimar stood up and approached Emma. "You wanted an explanation to this entire situation and hence you brought yourself here."

"_I brought myself here?"_

"Difficult to believe but true. And so you can't do anything else," Shalimar told her.

"Huh," Emma didn't believe her and turned around. She walked over to the two doors but when she wanted to touch them, something stung her inside. "Shit! Argh!"

"Told you, you couldn't go out." Shalimar slid her left lip line up as she placed her hands on her navy blue dress, its design identical to that of Emma's.

Once the pain stopped, Emma glared at the doors and then at Shalimar. "Who's doing this??!" the annoyance which she felt caused her to shout.

"You are."

"You're not serious. What do you know about this place? Who are you, really?!" she did not like this oddity.

"I already told you…"

"If you are my… inner voice, then how come you know all of this?" 

"Because _you know all this subconsciously, I'm just clearing it out for you in a way. Close your eyes," Shalimar said._

Emma's eyes narrowed. 

"Please, close your eyes."

Emma shook her head, her lack of patience leaving her so quickly that she shut her eyes only to open them a second later and find herself, standing at the edge of a cliff. "What… where…?" she noticed her hands tied with a rope behind her back. Emma felt her face being wet from tears and she was still carried by the grieving feeling. 

"No, Evelyn! Please!" A loud male voice yell turned her head behind her and to have her eyes see a young man with black hair, struggling to pass but being held back by a group of men, all dressed in peasant outfits. Her lips parted, she felt her heart beating out of control as she felt fear. Managing to look into the man's eyes she somehow felt the presence of an Elemental she knew. Quickly returning her face in front of her, Emma looked down at her and noticed a long black dress, resembling the 18th century, its satin ends traveling on the strong wind. "What's happening?" she whispered to herself and could not escape the view of the long fall before her. Emma wanted to move but she felt powerless to do so, some other will inside her was keeping her on that spot. Moving her gaze slightly to her right she noticed an older man holding a sharp sword at her. Swallowing she heard she young man's voice again, recognizing an Irish accent.

"Evelyn, you don't have to do this! You mustn't do this!" he pleaded with a voice filled with pain. 

"It's too late, Patrick. Evelyn has already made her decision. Either she takes her own life or you die," someone had said.

"No! It does not have to be this way! Evelyn!"  

Feeling the tears falling, Emma kept gazing in front of her, trying to hide her fear. She felt powerless to do anything. Quickly glancing at Patrick, she told him: "I will love you for eternity, Patrick. Please, take good care of yourself," and with that Emma jumped to the deep and nearly endless space. 

A quick flash then brought her back to the restaurant. Managing to regain her balance, Emma searched for Shalimar and found her standing a meter from her. "What was that?"

"Another reality."

"What happened?"

Shalimar shrugged. "You appeared to be a young lady who so unfortunately had fallen for a street thief… that would be Patrick."

"Why did I go there?"

"That was the time when this original place was built. You, I mean Evelyn and Patrick used to come here… and they would sit down," she pointed at a hidden and dark corner, "on that table."

"I thought you said this was 'no man's land'."

"Well, yes, but I had to somehow connect the meaning of this place to you and Brennan. It was quite special to Patrick and Evelyn."

"Wait. Were they… me and…"

"Brennan? Yep."

Emma's eyes widened to this answer. "It can't be that we actually met in the past, shared lives together!" she bit her upper lip and thought. "And _I can't believe I actually came up with this conclusion."_

"It seems it can in your case." 

"But reincarnation is just some mythical nonsense, it can not actually exist!"

"Oh dear, you really have spent a lot of time with Brennan. It's a little strange though as you should be able to believe in reincarnation."

"Where I went, what I did, that wasn't me; those weren't my… past lives."

"Yes, they were."

"Why did you put me in this position at all?"

"I didn't do anything else except observe."

"Ok, then who did that?"

"You did."

"Me?"

"Yes. You have much stronger abilities than you are aware of, Emma. Somehow you managed to put you consciousness on a travel through time while you were a sleep."

"That's crazy."

"Yes, as I said it is difficult to believe… you only observed what was happening around you, that's why you… your body did not teleport itself, physically that's quite impossible at this point of time… you didn't want to alter events, you only wanted to observe."

"So you're saying that all of this was _my_ doing?"

Shalimar nodded.

"Oh," Emma collapsed her hands as her eyes traveled around. "Great! Why did I do that?"

"Perhaps something inside and… outside, felt that you needed to know."

"Know what?"

"About yourself… who you were, what you would become."

"And Brennan?"

"Well, he seems to be rooted in those lives with you. And how? I do not know. As you say, God works in mysterious ways…"

"Wait…" Emma touched her neck. "Why couldn't I do anything on this last… place?"

"At the cliff?"

"Yes! I didn't have any control! The other time I could, but this time, I couldn't. I should've done something!" she began heading towards the blonde mutant.

"I can't give you all the answers, Emma. Some you just need to work out by yourself."

"That really helps," Emma sounded displeased. "well… that time when I…" she swallowed, "stood over Brennan's grave… that was real?"

"Like everything else you've experienced so far, yes."

"He's going to die?"

"Everyone dies in the end."

"But…"

"Emma…"  Shalimar placed her hand on her shoulder. "Some of these realities didn't happen in this dimension and those that did… those from the future, they're other lives of yours, not this one so you can not change anything now."

"Has this something to do with…um… reincarnation?" 

"Probably."

Emma put her hands behind her back and looked down. "This has to be a dream. From that moment I woke up with Brennan to this… it _has to_ be a dream. It's… it's too damn _weird_ to be real!"

"It's expected that you should feel like that."

Lifting her face, Emma looked into Shalimar's eyes. "It doesn't make sense… none of this makes any sense!"

Shalimar's eyes saddened. "It does, Emma. You're just feeling far too confused to realize that."

"Then why couldn't I sense anything when I was with Jesse or-or when I was Brennan?"

"You weren't always a telempath, you know; plus Brennan wasn't as well so that kind of interfered." 

"God… so not real." Emma shook her head while her mind was trying to accept the reality of everything that had happened to her. She placed her hands gently on her waist. "What did you mean with 'not in this dimension'?"

"You've heard about parallel universes, right?"

"Um, yeah… but that's all just a theory."

"Well, yes, for now."

"First it was different lives and now you're trying to tell me, I went to other… universes?" Emma took a few steps away from Shalimar.

"Similar to this one, yes."

"Aha… which ones then?"

"Um, the very first one where you woke up next to Brennan," and a naughty smile appeared on her face. "Then there was that one when you leaped into Brennan's body."

"Ok…"

"All great things take some time to be fully comprehended, Emma."

"But why couldn't I have gotten into my own body… why Brennan's?"

"Maybe by accident?"

"Maybe but still… so fucking strange… so I've traveled…"

"Yes, you did." 

"Well… that's creepy."

Shalimar giggled.

Finding a chair next to her, Emma sat down on it. "How did I do this…"

"The mind is a wonder."

Placing her elbows on her lap, she leaned her head on her hands. "One hell of a journey is all I'll say…" she sighed, "the one in the cemetery disturbed me…"

"I know, Emma." Shalimar kneeled next to her. "But you can't change anything."

Emma looked at her. "But you were there…"

"No, Shalimar was there but it is still not your reality… I'm sorry…"

Burying her face in her hands, she gave out a heavier sigh. "Just don't tell me that this is all, some… plan or whatever to discover something else about Brennan."

"In a way it is… you did discover something about him, about both of you."

Uncovering her face, Emma's blues stared intensively at the blonde. "There's more isn't there… all this… past, future lives… there's more, right… isn't there?   

Her face became serious as she stood up. "Alright… this seems to really be affecting you. You should maybe wake up now," Shalimar said and gathered her hands. 

The headache struck once more. "Not now! Damn it!" she complained until the headache rose to that level that forced the Psionic to fall into deep slumber. 

********************

The sweet smell of the sunny morning reached Emma, opening her eyes. Looking slowly across the room from where she laid, the Psionic smiled and slowly like a cat stretched lazily on the comfortable bed. She felt as if she had awoken from a strange but delightful dream. 

Sitting up, Emma covered her face and then slowly slid her hands to the back of her head before she jumped off the bed and rushed over to the bathroom.

It was ten in the morning when she was passing through the corridor; she did not appear to have any remembrance of what had happened after that night when she had gotten to bed. The only piece of memory present in Emma's mind was that of a strange dream. 

As she passed by the laboratory, Emma suddenly stopped. Seeing a small blue gem placed carefully on a pyramid-shaped surface, she decided to walk over to it. This was the stone they had gotten for Adam a couple of days ago. Taking it in her hands, she observed it and brushed her right thumb on its smooth blue surface. Raising it in front of her face she moved it to the left so it would take in some of the artificial light. Emma smiled. This stone seemed ordinary to her. Placing it down on its surface, she sighed and turned around to walk out of the laboratory. 

When she reached upstairs, Emma slowed down her pace. She saw Jesse sitting on the table with Shalimar across, both enjoying a nice meal and at the beginning of the table stood Brennan, explaining something to them. 

Seeing her friend there, the mere site had affected the beating of her heart. "What's happening?" she swallowed as the Psionic asked herself. Slowly she moved her blue eyes over to the other two mutants but as if there was some gravitational force pulling them back, they quickly returned to Brennan; he was now smiling. That smile, the gentle movement of those lips, the gestures which he made with his hands - all of that struck a familiar cord in Emma's mind. The argument that was there the previous night was now absent from her memory; she suddenly felt softened by his presence. 

Something, some foreign memory caused her to touch her lower lip and slowly move her hand to her neck as she swallowed once more. Why did she feel like this? What had happened to her? Emma had no knowledge of the realities she might have experienced before she woke up to this sunny morning; even if she had a memory of it, the Psionic would have only kept questioning herself of the reality of such travel… was it a dream? Did something as strange as that truly occur? 

Turning her head, Emma glanced through the window and how the sun had set itself free from the shield of dark clouds. Returning her gaze to her friends, to Brennan, she took a deep breath and slowly moved over to them; her heart was calling her to him. 

"Oh, good morning, you." Shalimar smiled when she noticed her friend.

"Hey… Shal," Emma briefly lifted her hand with a still wave while her eyes took only a glimpse of the Feral and Molecular. She had quickly returned her blues with the desire to look at Brennan and her heart nearly sank into the chocolaty color of his gaze when he looked back at her.   

"Someone's finally up," he spoke with a soft and pleased voice.

Emma remembered that tone from somewhere unfamiliar to her; she had of course heard the Elemental with that tone but it had been not as often as she had hoped… but this time that tone had reminded her of something different. She then saw his smile… it was sincere and beautiful.

She approached him until she stood merely an inch from the Elemental.

"Em?" he called her.

She sensed nothing of last night from him, but then of course they rarely took such arguments as serious. Not saying anything, Emma simply raised herself and touched his lips in a deep, passionate way. 

More than astonished by this action, Brennan's eyes had widened as he gazed at the closeness of her skin and felt the smell of strawberry. He wanted to break away from her and laugh but he couldn't, there was something inside the invisible sense of her kiss that prevented him from taking any other action except allow Emma to place her hands gently on his shoulders. Accepting her, Brennan responded with the gentle touch of his hands on her hips. 

Stopping with their meal, Jesse and Shalimar only stared at the two mutants embraced in each other, while small cracks of giggles eventually escaped the Feral and Molecular's mouths. "Um, guys?" Jesse called them.

Tasting each other's lips, Emma and Brennan had remained in that position for a while longer before Emma slowly parted from the Elemental's embrace, leaving Brennan to stare back at her in amazement.   

Taking a moment to recover from this, Brennan let out a tiny smile. "Em… what was that… for?"  

Emma shook her head. Those lips, they tasted exactly as she had remembered them. But from where? She never kissed Brennan like that. Feeling the need, once more the Psionic rushed to him and took his lips with hers. She felt Brennan allowing this action that took a shorter amount of time than the previous one. The temperature in Emma's body rose higher with every taste and kept that pace until she felt she was going to explode so she broke free again. Taking in air, she then replied: "I needed to know, I don't know from where I just needed to know."

"What?" Brennan felt confused. "Know what?"

"You," she responded and wrapped her arms tightly around his neck, hugging him with the love she felt for him as a friend, or perhaps more. But as a friend she knew she adored him. "Thank you for being there," she whispered and slowly felt his strong arms wrap around her small body, working like a drug on her, causing her blue eyes to slowly close. 

A strange feeling had wrapped around these two souls as if a sudden discovery of a life longer than this had appeared, pushing them closer to each other – both hearts and minds.

**THE END **

********************

I hope you have enjoyed the story. Your opinions are as always welcomed and very helpful as well. 

From my first story I read that some wanted an exploration of the Shalimar and Jesse relationship which is nice to know. Perhaps another story will follow. Thank you :o) 


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